
\ q-e's 



Makers of Canadian Literature 

CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 



LIBRARY EDITION 








TDakers of 

Canadian Literature 



Lome Albert Pierce 

Editor 

Victor Morin 

Associate Editor 

Frenck Section 

Dedkalccl to the u>rilers of 
Canada ~past and present ~ 
-five real ulasler -builders and 
interpreters of our qreat 
Dominion- in the hope that 
our People, equal heirs in 
fke rich inheritance, mat/ learn 
to hnoxu fhem inlhnalehf ; and 
knouunq them love {hem; and 
lovincjy'ollouj 



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B Charles G. D. 

8§ Roberts 



by 
JAMES CAPPON 



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Copyright in all countries 

SUBSCRIBING TO THE BERNE CONVENTION 



CONTENTS 



Biographical 1 

Anthology 29 

Appreciation 69 

Bibliography 125 

Index 145 






^7" " 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 




HARLES GEORGE DOUG- 
LAS ROBERTS was born at 
Douglas, a rural parish near 
Fredericton, New Brunswick, 
on the tenth of January, i860. 
His father was the Reverend 
Canon George Goodridge Roberts, M.A., 
LL.D., a classical scholar, a poet, and a man of 
fine athletic mould. A picture of his father 
appears in the person of the rector in Roberts' 
novel, "The Heart that Knows." Canon Rob- 
erts was the eldest son of George Roberts, 
Ph.D., LL.D., at one time head master of 
Fredericton Collegiate School, and later pro- 
fessor of classics in the University of New 
Brunswick. Mr. Roberts' mother was Emma 
Wetmore Bliss Roberts, daughter of the 
Honourable George Pidgeon Bliss, Attorney- 
General of New Brunswick, and a descendant 
of the Reverend Daniel Bliss, of Concord, 
the great-grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son, whose son Daniel was one of the most 



— 1 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

celebrated New England lawyers of Revolu- 
tionary days. The name Daniel Bliss appears 
in the list of attorneys who, in 1774, signed the 
address to Governor Hutchison when that 
official was removed from the Province of 
Massachusetts. His name also appears in 
the list of men mentioned in the Banishment 
Act of the State of Massachusetts, 1778. 
Charles G. D. Roberts was, therefore, of the 
lineage of scholars and United Empire 
Loyalists. 

Shortly after his birth the Roberts family 
moved to Westcock parish in Westmoreland 
County, New Brunswick, where they remained 
until Canon Roberts received his appointment 
as rector of the parish of Fredericton. It is 
interesting to note in this connection that 
William Wilfred Campbell, Archibald Lamp- 
man and Robert Norwood also spent their 
early days in a rectory. 

The Fredericton rectory will live for ever 
in the minds of all lovers of literature as one 
of the most remarkable cradles of genius on 
record. It was a home of plain living and high 
thinking. Its atmosphere was one of lofty 
idealism enriched by good books and excellent 
friends. The Roberts children received their 

— 2 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

early education from their father, a graduate 
of the University of New Brunswick and a keen 
student to the end of his days. He not only 
found time to direct their individual studies, 
but spent long hours reading aloud to them 
from the best books on his ample shelves. 
For the rest, the children had the run of his 
library, and they read and re-read everything 
within reach. Three of the family, in addition 
to Charles G. D., have achieved distinction 
in letters: Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald, 
author of many fine poems and excellent 
essays; William Carman Roberts, associate 
editor, the Literary Digest; and Theodore 
Goodridge Roberts, writer of many novels 
and quite a body of verse. Goodridge Bliss 
Roberts, another member of this household, 
a poet of great promise, died in early life, 
while a student of divinity. 

Before Charles G. D. Roberts had begun 
school he already had possessed himself of 
an intellectual competence full and rich. 
Entering Fredericton Collegiate he came under 
the direct influence of the head master, George 
R. Parkin, later Sir George Parkin, General 
Superintendent of the Cecil Rhodes Scholar- 
ship Trust. Another of his teachers was 

— 3 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

George E. Foster, now the Right Honourable 
Sir George Foster, of the Senate of Canada. 
Bliss Carman, his cousin, was a fellow student, 
and both alike owe much to the head master, 
who, in methods and ideals, resembled 
Arnold, of Rugby. Graduating from Frederic- 
ton Collegiate School with the Douglas medal 
in classics, Roberts matriculated at the Uni- 
versity of New Brunswick. In 1877 he re- 
ceived the classical scholarship, with honours 
in both Greek and Latin, and the following 
year was awarded the Alumni gold medal for 
an essay in Latin. He graduated in 1879 with 
honours in mental and moral philosophy and 
political economy. 

Upon his graduation Mr. Roberts accepted 
the head mastership of the Grammar School, 
at Chatham, New Brunswick. He was an ex- 
cellent disciplinarian and maintained order 
where other teachers had failed. He was the 
only master, and took all the subjects, handling 
them well. Although constantly busy with 
literary work, he always found time to join 
the boys in their sports, and amazed his pupils, 
as he had his fellow students at the university, 
with his feats of strength. He encouraged 
his students to visit his library at night, to 

— 4 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

browse among his many books, and gave 
himself liberally in special tuition. At this 
time his chief diversion was his Malicete 
birch canoe, which he had brought with him 
from the St. John river. 

One year later, 1880, and while he was still 
at Chatham, there appeared his first volume 
of verse, entitled "Orion and Other Poems," 
published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phila- 
delphia. The book is dedicated to his father, 
and the opening lines of the dedicatory poem 
run thus : 

These first-fruits, gathered by distant ways, 
In brief, sweet moments of toilsome days, 

When the weary brain was a thought v less weary, 
And the heart found strength for delight and praise, — 

I bring them and proffer them to thee. 
All blown and beaten by winds of the sea, 

Ripened beside the tide-vexed river, — 
The broad, ship-laden Miramichi. 

The first poem in this remarkable first 
offering is "To the Spirit of Song," and contains 
the promise of the robust beauty and dis- 
tinction of the best of his work in later years. 
He says in part : 

Surely I have seen the majesty and wonder, 
Beauty, might and splendour of the soul of song; 

Surely I have felt the spell that lifts asunder 
Soul from body, when lips faint and thought is strong ; 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Surely I have heard 

The ample silence stirred 
By intensest music from no throat of bird. 

Smitten down before thy feet 

From the paths of heaven sweet, 
Lowly I await the song upon my lips conferred. 



The title poem of this little collection 
clearly reflects his classical education, and his 
fondness for classical themes. He began 
under the spell of Keats and imitated his 
master's luxuriousness of phrase and fancy, 
as well as his sensuous richness of colour and 
cadence. To his aid he summoned all the 
gods of mythical Arcadia. Perhaps he had 
done better to have followed the simplicity 
and candour of Wordsworth during these 
formative years. Perhaps, too, it would have 
put into his work that ethical content it seems 
ever to have lacked — high purpose, fidelity, 
sincerity and naturalism. As it was, "Orion" 
was a theme too vast, and his treatment in- 
evitably becomes grandiose and unreal. In- 
deed, Mr. Roberts seems to have sensed this, 
for either the urgent necessity of bread, or the 
feeling of unreality, soon prompted him to 
choose themes less remote than those of the 
legendary Arcadia, and so he takes this 

— 6 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

mournful farewell of all his nymphs, dryads, 
and mythical gods and heroes. 1 

Ah me! No wind from golden Thessaly 
Blows in on me as in the golden days ; 
No morning music from the dew-sweet ways, 

No pipings, such as came so clear to me 

Out of green meadows by the sparkling sea; 
No goddess any more, no Dryad strays. 
And glorifies with songs the laurel maze; 

Or else I hear not and I cannot see. 

For out of weary hands is fallen the lyre, 
And sobs in falling; all the purple glow 
From weary eyes is faded, which before 

Saw bright Apollo and the blissful choir 
In every mountain grove. Nor can I know 
If I shall surely see them any more. 

Mr. Roberts had planned for some time to 
take a post-graduate course at the universities 
of Oxford and Edinburgh, but he suddenly 
changed his mind ; and on the last day but one 
of the year, December 29, 1880, he was mar- 
ried to Mary Isabel Fenety, a daughter of 
George E. Fenety, Queen's Printer, of Frederic- 
ton, New Brunswick. The following year, 
and while still head master of Chatham Gram- 
mar School, he completed the requirements 
for his M.A. degree from his Alma Mater. 

1 Vide : "Roberts and the Influences of his Time," 
by James Cappon. 



R.- 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

In 1882 he was appointed head master of 
York Street School, Fredericton, a position 
which he was to retain for one year. 

The Week, an excellent literary journal, was 
about this time founded by Goldwin Smith 
in Toronto, and Roberts became its first editor 
in 1883. The convictions of the editor and the 
founder were so dissimilar that the situation 
soon became impossible. Roberts believed 
ardently in Canadian independence within the 
Empire, while Goldwin Smith was equally 
convinced that annexation by the United States 
was the ultimate and desirable destiny of 
Canada. Therefore, having to give editorial 
countenance to views forced into the journal, 
which were abhorrent to him, he adopted the 
only possible course, and resigned after four 
troubled, but not unfruitful months, returning 
to New Brunswick. Before he quitted his 
post, however, he had attracted to The Week 
the finest literary talent of the Dominion. 
Archibald Lampman, William Wilfred Camp- 
bell, Isabella Valancy Crawford, Pauline 
Johnson, Charles Mair, Duncan Campbell 
Scott and a host of others, contributed regu- 
larly to his pages. 

The following year and a half, Mr. Roberts 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

spent in free-lance journalism, barely making 
ends meet. Fortunately for him, a vacancy 
occurred on the staff of King's College, Wind- 
sor, Nova Scotia, and in 1885 ^ e became pro- 
fessor of English and French Literature and 
Political Economy. The salary was small and 
inadequate, but, in spite of this handicap, he 
produced much of his best work here. He was 
indefatigable, teaching all morning and writing 
incessantly afternoons and evenings. His 
chief literary output was poetry, together with 
a number of boys' stories. 

About this time he entered the competition 
for a History of Canada for use in the schools. 
The prize was awarded to Clements, Roberts' 
being considered too exhaustive for a school 
text book. It was ultimately published, how- 
ever, and still sells. 

Mr. Roberts' son, Lloyd, has restored the 
picture of those Windsor days in his very 
charming work, "The Book of Roberts." 
The fields and walks about their home, "Kings- 
croft;" the Boston bull, Major; the jolly con- 
claves about the fireplace, echoing "Bingo" or 
"Rolling Home;" the sacred enclosure of the 
study, where the children might come if they 
were quiet; the interesting friends who visited 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

them, the after-supper romp and the ominous 
voice from the study, "Half-past eight, chicks!" 
Mr. Roberts has left two poems which are 
an interesting reminiscence of these early 
days in the Windsor home. The first is 
"Sleepy Man" : 

When the Sleepy Man comes with dust on his eyes 

(Oh, weary, my Dearie, so weary!) 
He shuts up the earth, and he opens the skies. 

(So hush-a-by, weary, my Dearie!) 

He smiles through his fingers, and shuts up the sun; 

(Oh, weary, my Dearie, so weary!) 
The stars that he loves he lets out one by one, 

(So hush-a-by, weary, my Dearie!) 

He comes from the castles of Drowsy-boy Town ; 

(Oh, weary, my Dearie, so weary!) 
At the touch of his hand the tired eyelids fall down. 

(So hush-a-by, weary, my Dearie!) 

The second poem is equally well known. It is 
entitled "A Wake-Up Song." 

Sun's up, wind's up! Wake up, dearies! 

Leave your coverlets white and downy, 
June's come into the world this morning. 

Wake up, Golden Head! Wake up, Brownie! 



Wake up, Golden Head! Wake up, Brownie! 

Cat-bird wants you in the garden soon. 
You and I, butterflies, bobolinks, and clover, 

We've a lot to do on the first of June. 

— 10 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

An interesting sidelight upon this period 
is provided through the courtesy of Robert 
Norwood. He writes: "In my second year 
Roberts warmed up to me by virtue of a poem 
I had contributed to the King's College Re- 
cord: and, after that, I think I was more in- 
timately associated with him than any other 
fellow, with the exception, perhaps, of Charles 
Vernon, my room-mate. ... I spent 
every spare night after that in Roberts' study. 
We had an understanding that I was to drop 
in whenever I liked; and, if he were busy, he 
would sometimes not even look up and nod, 
but went on with his work as though I were not 
there. He had a splendid library into which 
I dipped. Invariably, however, at the stroke 
of ten, Roberts would put aside his manu- 
script. He was then writing his history of 
Canada. He would stretch himself and move 
over to a corner shelf where stood a long- 
necked, grass-covered bottle of fine old 
Jamaica rum. With much ceremony he would 
brew a punch for himself and me ; and then we 
would sit while he talked Canadian history, 
read from his manuscript or listened to some- 
thing I had brought over for him. I have 
always affirmed that, with the exception of 

— 11 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Dr. Willits, who gave me classics, I got 
more from Roberts than I did from the rest of 
my university course. ... I dedicated 
'The Modernists' to him as a slight tribute of 
my affection." 

Mr. Roberts, as we have already seen, was 
an indefatigable worker. In addition to his 
"History of Canada," he completed his first 
Acadian romance, "The Forge in the Forest" — 
indeed, his residence in the Land of Evangeline 
and Abbe Le Loutre, and his pilgrimages of 
exploration through the Maritime Provinces, 
chiefly about the Bay of Fundy, made a lasting 
impression upon him, and inspired, coloured 
and enriched nearly everything of permanent 
value in this work. 



IN THE AFTERNOON 

Wind of the summer afternoon, 
Hush, for my heart is out of tune ! 

Hush, for thou movest restlessly 
The too light sleeper, memory! 

Whate'er thou hast to tell me, yet 
'Twere something sweeter to forget— 

Sweeter than all thy breath of balm, 
An hour of unremembering calm. 



12 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

Once more I snuff the salt, I stand 
On the long dykes of Westmoreland; 

I watch the narrowing flats, the strip 
Of red clay at the water's lip ; 

Far off the net-reels, brown and high, 
And boat-masts slim against the sky; 

Along the ridges of the dykes 
Wind-beaten scant sea-grass, and spikes 

Of last year's mullein ; down the slopes 
To landward, in the sun, thick ropes 

Of blue vetch, and convolvulus, 
And matted roses glorious. 

The liberal blooms o'erbrim my hands; 
I walk the level, wide marsh-lands ; 

Waist-deep in dusty-blossomed grass 
I watch the swooping breezes pass 

In sudden, long, pale lines, that flee 
Up the deep breast of this green sea. 



Hast thou one eager yearning filled, 
Or any restless throbbing stilled, 

Or hast thou any power to bear 
Even a little of my care?— 

Ever so little of this weight 
Of weariness canst thou abate? 

Ah, poor thy gift indeed, unless 
Thou bring the old child-heartedness- 

— 13 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

And such a gift to bring is given, 
Alas, to no wind under heaven! 

Wind of the summer afternoon, 
Be still; my heart is not in tune. 

Sweet is thy voice ; but yet, but yet — 
Of all 'twere sweetest to forget! 

Two years after his appointment as professor 
at Kings (1887), there appeared "In Divers 
Tones," a book of poems. Since then, with an 
almost bewildering rapidity and profusion, 
books have come leaping from his pen, some 
years yielding two, and others as many as 
three and even four. 

In this volume of verse he returned again to 
the old idyllic themes in the poem "Actaeon." 
But it is no longer Keats who alone holds him 
in thrall. The adaptation of the dramatic 
monologue, the ambitious psychological treat- 
ment, and the harsh and abrupt style which he 
frequently simulates, undoubtedly remind us 
of Browning. But on the whole he is Tenny- 
sonian in his mingled simplicity and ornateness 
of diction. Already we behold a lack of 
originality, a strain of medley, which indicate 
a new orientation of his own thought and life. 
Indeed the legend "In Divers Tones" might 
fittingly be placed over everything he was 
from now on to write. 

— 14 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

Mr. Roberts remained professor of English 
and French Literature and Political Economy 
from 1885 until 1888. From 1888 until 1895 
he was professor of English Literature and 
Economics. In 1893 he was one of the literary 
arbiters at the World's Fair, Chicago. The 
year previous (1892) there appeared his third 
book of verse, "Songs of the Common Day," 
a sonnet sequence calling up the scenes of his 
native New Brunswick coast. These poems 
are marked by a new simplicity of manner. 
Such poems as "The Flight of the Geese," 
"The Potato Harvest," and "The Sower" are 
excellent examples of his new freedom, 
simplicity and originality. Frequently, how- 
ever, they are marred by weak or unoriginal 
moralizing, by a lack of clear-cut characteriza- 
tion, and the inability to interpret life pro- 
foundly and critically. 1 

In "Ave" (1892) Mr. Roberts again re- 
turned to the grand traditional forms of poetry 
akin to Shelley's "Adonais," Arnold's "Thyr- 
sis" and Swinburne's "Ave atque Vale." 
The twelve years since "Orion," and the five 



1 Vide: "Roberts and the Influences of his Time," 
by James Cappon. 

— 15 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

years since "Actaeon," had not restored re- 
gularity to his beauty or purged away his 
rhetoric. But occasionally he was capable, 
as in verses xviii, xxiii and xxiv, of reaching 
high melodic effects. 

Mr. Roberts resigned his professorship in 
1896, and moved to New York. He was to 
leave behind him most of what was valuable 
in his claim to a place in the pantheon of the 
young nation's letters. He is to live in the 
minds of his countrymen as a poet, and the 
greatest of his verse had now been written. 
In the field of fiction, into which he had already 
essayed, and in the nature stories with which 
he was to blaze a new trail, he had to depend 
upon the recollection of his experiences in the 
Maritime Provinces. 

The honour of originating the modern nature 
story belongs to Charles G. D. Roberts. Some 
think of him as an absentee naturalist, con- 
juring his animal tragedies and comedies by 
the wizardry of his imagination. This error 
is successfully disposed of when one knows the 
facts of his life. From his earliest childhood 
he was in love with nature in all its forms 
and moods. He excelled in sports, but he 
loved his canoe with a sort of passionate 

— 16 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

devotion. It was his chief delight to pene- 
trate into the wild fastnesses of his native 
province, to explore unfamiliar lakes and 
shoot dangerous rapids, and when night 
came pitch his tent in the open. He was 
courageous and self-reliant, and not only 
oblivious of danger, but always able to inspire 
confidence in others and in himself. Bliss 
Carman loves to tell of these vacations spent 
plundering happiness from the vast, fragrant 
forests of New Brunswick, when he and 
Roberts left books and society behind for the 
wisdom and the freedom of the wild. 

Mr. Roberts dedicates to Bliss Carman 
"Birch and Paddle," a poem reminiscent of 
common joys and enthusiasms. 

Friend, those delights of ours 
Under the sun and showers — 

Athrough the noonday blue 
Sliding our light canoe, 

Or floating, hushed, at eve, 
Where the dim pine-tops grieve ! 

What tonic days were they 
Where shy streams dart and play — 

Where rivers, brown and strong 
As caribou, bound along 

— 17 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Break, into angry parle, 
With wildcat rapids snarl. 

Subside, and like a snake 
Wind to the quiet lake ! 



So, Friend, with ears and eyes 
Which shy divinities 

Have opened with their kiss, 
We need no balm but this, — 

A little space for dreams 
On care-unsullied streams — 

'Mid task and toil, a space 
To dream on Nature's face! 



In addition to these explorations, where he 
dwelt for long periods among the wild things 
he loved, he went on a walking tour of Quebec 
with Joacquin Miller, and travelled exten- 
sively about Eastern Canada, principally to its 
shrines of beauty and heroism. It was on such 
a tour that he wrote descriptive sketches to 
accompany Mr. H. Sandman's drawings in 
"Picturesque Canada." 

It has also been said that Mr. Roberts was 
an imitator of Kipling, Thompson Seton and 
others in his treatment of the nature story. 
In the first place he contributed "Do Seek 
Their Meat from God" to Harper's Magazine 

— 18 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

in the late eighties, and from then on provided 
a constantly increasing number of similar 
stories for LippincotVs Magazine, Youth's 
Companion and many more. If, therefore, 
there was any imitating it must have been by 
some one else. In the second place it is 
necessary to observe that the methods of 
Roberts and Thompson Seton are totally 
different. The latter is a patient naturalist, 
collecting data with infinite pains, and de- 
scribing what he has discovered with minute 
detail. Roberts has neither the time nor the 
taste for this exacting science. He simply 
takes the wild creatures he loves, gives them a 
soul, makes them sharers in the common air 
and life of the world, and the result is scientific 
and yet more than science. 

After Mr. Roberts took up his residence in 
New York he was employed as an editorial 
writer on The Illustrated American, also en- 
gaging in free lance work until 1907, when he 
went abroad. 

Speaking before the Canadian Club in Tor- 
onto, February 26, 1903, Mr. Roberts corrected 
the mistake frequently made, that he had 
yielded to a popular fad in his nature stories 
merely to keep the pot boiling. While he did 

— 19 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

not yield to any one in his regard for keeping 
the pot boiling, yet in this instance he had 
simply taken advantage of a popular fad to 
write what he had long been wanting to write. 
For instance, he declared that he was the 
father of the animal story, and that Thompson 
Seton acknowledged his priority. In the 
early eighties he had written the first three 
animal stories of the modern type of which 
he knew. These he succeeded in selling 
after a couple of years for $14.00, $20.00 and 
$25.00. The editor of the magazine advised 
him to stick to his poetry, that the animal 
stories were like nothing under the sun, being 
neither fish, nor flesh, nor fowl, so that he 
wrote no more animal stories until the vogue 
came. 

Upon his return from Italy, June, 1907, he an- 
swered President Roosevelt's charge, in which 
he classed Roberts, Seton and Long as "nature 
fakirs," in that they wrote about animal lore 
with which they had no other connection than 
the imagination. "I shall try in a friendly way," 
says Mr. Roberts, "to correct the President, 
and shall also write an emphatic defence of 
the nature school to which I, with several 

— 20 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

others, belong. There are two distinct 
branches of nature writers, one headed by 
John Burroughs, and the opposite school, 
who are concerned in animal psychology, and 
who are supported in the belief that animals 
are actuated in varying degrees by a process 
akin to reason. That they do think and com- 
pare is our creed, and we are backed up by 
backwoodsmen, trappers and trainers of wild 
animals." 

The next year after his removal to New 
York, he published "The Book of the Native" 
(1896), in which he abandoned nature poetry 
for reflection. The gods of his early devotion 
are now abandoned for strangely conflicting 
ideals. Now, as in "Heal All," he exhibits 
the ethical feeling of Wordsworth, and again, 
as in "Autochthon" and "The Unsleeping," 
he champions an Emersonian philosophic 
mysticism. Even in the same poem, strange 
and unaccountable antitheses occur. He is 
best when he turns aside from his theorizing. 
Take, for example, this from "Kinship" : 

Back to wisdom take me, mother, 
Comfort me with kindred hands; 

Tell me tales the world's forgetting 
Till my spirit understands. 

— 21 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Tell me how some sightless impulse, 
Working out a hidden plan, 

God for kin and clay for fellow, 
Wakes to find itself a man. 



Or this from "Recessional" : 

Moth and blossom, blade and bee, 
Words must go as well as we, 

In the long procession joining 
Mount, and star, and sea. 

Toward the shadowy brink we climb 
Where the round year rolls sublime; 
Rolls, and drops, and falls for ever 
In the vast of time ; 

Like a plummet plunging deep 
Past the utmost reach of sleep, 

Till remembrance has no longer 
Care to laugh or weep. 

"The Book of the Native" was followed by 
"New York Nocturnes" (1898), in which the 
prophecy of "The Poet Bidden to Manhattan 
Island" was verified. 

Where once he had looked with longing eyes 
towards Arcadian vales, and romantic lands 
bordering on the Bay of Fundy, now he 
gravitates towards a sentimental and erotic 
transformation of literary ideals. Words- 
worth has left his Rydal Mount, Emerson his 
Concord, and Roberts his Tantramar for the 

— 22 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

crowd and delights of Bohemia and the grati- 
fication of ambition. The poems "New Life," 
"Twilight on Sixth Avenue" and "The Ideal" 
are representative of this new development 
in his art. 

It will not be necessary to linger over Mr. 
Roberts' life and work in New York. An 
interesting picture of this period is contained 
in one of the early chapters of "The Book of 
Roberts." Mr. Roberts, Lloyd, Bliss Carman 
and an artist lived in apartments on Ninth 
Street and the combined struggle to make 
ends meet is but vaguely implied. At any 
rate, this was the birthplace of many of the 
"Pipes of Pan" and "Rose" poems. Mr. 
Roberts and his son moved to lodgings on 
Fifth Avenue, and the little coterie was broken 
up for good, although they frequently came 
together with many other kindred spirits. 

"The Book of the Rose" (1898-1902) ap- 
peared in 1902. Here again Mr. Roberts 
sang in divers tones. The mystical idealism 



The world becomes a little thing; 

Art, travel, music, men, 
And all that these can ever give 

Are in her brow's white ken. 

— 23 — 
R— 3 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Elsewhere he follows Swinburne, Beaudelaire 
or Kipling, as in "The Stranded Ship." Mr. 
Roberts has as yet discovered no high and 
compelling purpose. His variety reflects the 
disturbance in his own mind and the conflict- 
ing wild cries about him. Much of this volume 
is still the result of artistic experiment and 
exhibits a lack of high resolve. 1 

In his greatest moods Mr. Roberts has 
realized "The august infinitude of man." 
Possibly only four or five American poets have 
done this in the elemental manner. For want 
of a better word we call it the cosmic touch. 
Bliss Carman has it in a marked degree, 
Walt Whitman also, and James Russell Lowell 
once in his "Ode to Columbus." Albert Dur- 
rant Watson possesses the same faculty, as 
may be seen in "The Hills of Life" and "Under 
the Open Sky." This is one of the greatest and 
least understood aspects of Roberts' work. 
Those who have read will not soon forget such 
poems as "In the Wide Awe and Wisdom of 
the Night," "O Solitary of the Austere Sky" 
and "Beyond the Tops of Time": in these 
great moments there is an ease and mastery 



i Vide: "Roberts and the Influences of his Time," 
by James Cappon. 

— 24 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

that is unsurpassed, and this greatness will 
be understood, and will grow in authority, as 
the human spirit develops. Few poems more 
clearly reveal the scope which scientific know- 
ledge gives to the imagination. 

In the wide awe and wisdom of the night 
I saw the round world rolling on its way, 

Beyond significance of depth or height, 
Beyond the interchange of dark and day. 

I compassed time, outstripped the starry speed, 
And in my still Soul apprehended space. 

And knew the Universe of no such span 
As the august infinitude of man. 

O solitary of the austere sky, 
Pale presence of the unextinguished star, 

How small am I in thine august regard! 

Invisible, — and yet I know my worth ! 
When comes the hour to break this prisoning shard, 

And reunite with Him that breathed me forth. 
Then shall this atom of the Eternal Soul 
Encompass thee in its benign control ! 

After leaving New York, Mr. Roberts 
travelled for a year or more, chiefly in France 
and Germany, and then settled in England. 
On the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, he 
enlisted as a private in the Legion of Frontiers- 

— 25 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

men. Having preserved his unusual athletic 
vigor he was successful in training cavalry 
remounts. In December of the same year he 
was made lieutenant of the 16th Battalion of 
the King's Regiment, becoming a captain in 
1915 and major, O.M.F.C, 1917. Subse- 
quently he became associated with Lord 
Beaverbrook in the Canadian War Records' 
Office, assisting in the preparation of the 
official story of Canada's share in the Great 
War, "Canada in Flanders." The third volume 
of the series appeared under his name. Since 
that time Mr. Roberts has continued to reside 
in London, England. 

The literary output of Mr. Roberts during 
these recent years has been nothing short of 
amazing. So colossal is the list of his books, 
serials, articles and editorial ventures, that 
it is with the greatest difficulty one is able to 
prepare a correct bibliography. 

Mr. Roberts, in 1906, received from his 
Alma Mater, the University of New Brunswick, 
the LL.D. degree, making the third successive 
generation to be recipient of their highest 
honour. He has also been elected a Fellow 
of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member 
of the Authors' Club, of London, England. 

— 26 — 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

Mr. Roberts has never boasted of perfec- 
tion. He has never haughtily claimed his 
literary rights, for he has allowed his works to 
speak for him. He has drunk deeply of both 
delight and disappointment. And through it 
all he has been kind to a fault, always compas- 
sionate, even to animals, unfailingly courteous, 
and consequently of all men most easily im- 
posed upon by tricksters and vagabonds. 
Several of his friends have unknowingly used 
the very words of the tutoress in his Windsor 
home, who is still alive, and who writes of 
him : "He was always helping lame dogs over 
the stile and getting no thanks." 

Being lavish of his sympathy, Mr. Roberts 
was prodigal with his goods — "an open hand for 
all who came to borrow." Consequently he was 
invariably in straitened circumstances. He 
has always been a strange compendium of 
strong and weak traits, his very weaknesses 
making him loved by his friends. Above all, 
he has an extraordinary capacity for friend- 
ship, for comradeship. 

I should like to close this brief sketch of Mr. 
Roberts with the tribute of a friend. "Three 
things stand out among my impressions of 
Roberts, the man and the artist," writes Robert 

— 27 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Norwood. "The first is his universal kindness 
to his world. I have never met a man so in- 
variably kind and generous. Probably this 
virtue was his fault, but I can never forget his 
unfailing kindness to me, and I saw it always 
in his relationship to everybody else. He was 
always helping a lame dog over the stile,' 
and was ever enthusiastic about the other 
fellow's work. The second is his intellectual 
strength — a remarkable brain. I do not 
speak here of the artist, but of the intellectual. 
He has the brain of a bank manager, strongly 
balanced, a mind that ranges easily over al- 
most every topic. The third is his artistic 
austerity. After many years I look back on 
Charles G. D. Roberts as one of the greatest 
men I have met — a most magnetic personality, 
a great mind and a very tender spirit. 
Roberts, like Peter Pan, refused to grow up, 
and never would take the ethical world seri- 
ously. He had the dignity of a Puritan, but 
he lacked the Puritan's sense of personal 
responsibility to his world." 



— 28 — 



x^NTHOLOGY 



AVE! 

An Ode for the Shelley Centenary (1892) 

XV 

And thou, thenceforth the breathless child of 
change, 

Thine own Alastor, on an endless quest 
Of unimagined loveliness didst range, 

Urged ever by the soul's divine unrest. 
Of that high quest and that unrest divine 

Thy first immortal music thou didst make, 
Inwrought with fairy Alp, and Reuss, and 
Rhine, 

And phantom seas that break 
In soundless foam along the shores of Time, 
Prisoned in thine imperishable rhyme. 

XVI 

Thyself the lark melodious in mid-heaven; 

Thyself the Protean shape of chainless cloud, 
Pregnant with elemental fire, and driven 

Through deeps of quivering light, and dark- 
ness, loud 

— 31 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

With tempest, yet beneficent as prayer; 

Thyself the wild west wind, relentless 
strewing 
The withered leaves of custom on the air, 

And through the wreck pursuing 
O'er lovelier Arnos, more imperial Romes, 
Thy radiant visions to their viewless homes. 

XVII 

And when thy mightiest creation thou 

Wert fain to body forth — the dauntless 
form, 
The all-enduring, all-forgiving brow 

Of the great Titan, flinchless in the storm 
Of pangs unspeakable and nameless hates, 

Yet rent by all the wrongs and woes of men, 
And triumphing in his pain, that so their fates 

Might be assuaged — oh then, 

Out of that vast compassionate heart of thine, 

Thou wert constrained to shape the dream 

benign. 

XVIII 

O Baths of Caracalla, arches clad 
In such transcendent rhapsodies of green 

That one might guess the sprites of spring 
were glad 
For your majestic ruin, yours the scene, 

— 32 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

The illuminating air of sense and thought; 

And yours the enchanted light, O skies of 
Rome, 
Where the giant vision into form was wrought; 

Beneath your blazing dome 
The intensest song our language ever knew 
Beat up exhaustless to the blinding blue ! 

XIX 

The domes of Pisa and her towers superb, 

The myrtles and the ilexes that sigh 
O'er San Giuliano, where no jars disturb 

The lonely aziola's evening cry, 
The Serchio's sun-kissed waters — these con- 
spired 

With Plato's theme occult, with Dante's calm 
Rapture of mystic love, and so inspired 

Thy soul's espousal psalm, 
A strain of such elect and pure intent 
It breathes of a diviner element. 

XX 

Thou on whose lips the word of Love became 
A rapt evangel to assuage all wrong, 

Not Love alone, but the austerer name 

Of Death engaged the splendours of thy 
song. 

— 33 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

The luminous grief, the spacious consolation 
Of thy supreme lament, that mourned for him, 

Too early haled to that still habitation 
Beneath the grass-roots dim, 

Where his faint limbs and pain-o'erwearied 
heart 

Of all earth's loveliness became a part, 

XXI 

But where, thou sayest, himself would not 
abide, — 
Thy solemn incommunicable joy 
Announcing Adonais has not died, 

Attesting death to free, but not destroy, 
All this was as thy swan-song mystical. 

Even while the note serene was on thy tongue 
Thin grew the veil of the Invisible, 

The white sword nearer swung, — 
And in the sudden wisdom of thy rest 
Thou knewest all thou hadst but dimly 
guessed. 

XXII 

Lament, Lerici ! mourn for the world's loss ! 

Mourn that pure light of song extinct at noon ! 
Ye waves of Spezzia that shine and toss, 

Repent that sacred flame you quenched too 
soon! 

— 34 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Mourn, Mediterranean waters, mourn 

In affluent purple down your golden shore ! 
Such strains as his, whose voice you stilled in 
scorn, 
Our ears may greet no more, 
Unless at last to that far sphere we climb 
Where he completes the wonder of his rhyme ! 

XXIII 
How like a cloud she fled, thy fateful bark, 
From eyes that watched to hearts that 
waited, till 
Up from the ocean roared the tempest dark — 
And the wild heart Love waited for was still! 
Hither and thither in the slow, soft tide, 
Rolled seaward, shoreward, sands and 
wandering shells 
And shifting weeds, thy fellows, thou didst hide 

Remote from all farewells, 
Nor felt the sun, nor heard the fleeting rain, 
Nor heeded Casa Magni's quenchless pain. 

XXIV 
Thou heedest not? Nay, for it was not thou, 
That blind, mute clay relinquished by the 
waves 
Reluctantly at last, and slumbering now 
In one of kind earth's most compassionate 



graves ! 



— 35 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS. 

Not thou, not thou — for thou wert in the light 
Of the Unspeakable, where time is not. 

Thou sawest those tears; but in thy perfect 
sight 
And thy eternal thought 

Were they not even now all wiped away 

In the reunion of the infinite day! 

XXV 

There face to face thou sawest the living God 

And worshipedst, beholding Him the same 
Adored on earth as Love, the same whose rod 

Thou hadst endured as Life, whose secret 
name 
Thou now didst learn, the healing name of 
Death. 

In that unroutable profound of peace, 
Beyond experience of pulse and breath, 

Beyond the last release 
Of longing, rose to greet thee all the lords 
Of Thought, with consummation in their words : 

XXVI 
He of the seven cities claimed, whose eyes, 
Though blind, saw gods and heroes, and the 
fall 
Of Ilium, and many alien skies, 
And Circe's Isle ; and he whom mortals call 

— 36 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

The Thunderous, who sang the Titan bound 
As thou the Titan victor; the benign 

Spirit of Plato; Job; and Judah's crowned 
Singer and seer divine ; 

Omar; the Tuscan; Milton vast and strong; 

And Shakespeare, captain of the host of Song. 

XXVII 

Back from the underworld of whelming change 

To the wide-glittering beach thy body came ; 
And thou didst contemplate with wonder 
strange 

And curious regard thy kindred flame, 
Fed sweet with frankincense and wine and salt, 

With fierce purgation search thee, soon 
resolving 
Thee to the elements of the airy vault 

And the far spheres revolving, 
The common waters, the familiar woods, 
And the great hills' inviolate solitudes. 

XXVIII 
Thy close companions there officiated 
With solemn mourning and with mindful 
tears, 
The pained, imperious wanderer unmated 
Who voiced the wrath of those rebellious 
years; 

— 37 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Trelawney, lion-limbed and high of heart; 

And he, that gentlest sage and friend most 
true, 
Whom Adonais loved. With these bore part 

One grieving ghost, that flew 
Hither and thither through the smoke unstirred 
In wailing semblance of a wild white bird. 

XXIX 

O heart of fire, that fire might not consume, 

Forever glad the world because of thee ; 
Because of thee forever eyes illume 

A more enchanted earth, a lovelier sea! 
O poignant voice of the desire of life, 

Piercing our lethargy, because thy call 
Aroused our spirits to a nobler strife 

Where base and sordid fall, 
Forever past the conflict and the pain, 
More clearly beams the goal we shall attain! 

XXX 

And now once more, O marshes, back to 
you 

From whatsoever wanderings, near or far, 
To you I turn with joy forever new, 

To you, O sovereign vasts of Tantramar ! 

— 38 — 






ANTHOLOGY 

Your tides are at the full. Your wizard flood, 
With every tribute stream and brimming 
creek, 
Ponders, possessor of the utmost good, 

With no more left to seek, — 
But the hour wanes and passes; and once 

more 
Resounds the ebb with destiny in its roar. 

XXXI 

So might some lord of men, whom force and 
fate 
And his great heart's unvanquishable power 
Have thrust with storm to his supreme 
estate, 
Ascend by night his solitary tower 
High o'er the city's lights and cries uplift, 
Silent he ponders the scrolled heaven to 
read 
And the keen stars' conflicting message sift, 

Till the slow signs recede, 
And ominously scarlet dawns afar 
The day he leads his legions forth to war. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



■39- 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

THE POTATO HARVEST 

A high, bare field, brown from the plough, and 
borne 
Aslant from sunset ; amber wastes of sky 
Washing the ridge; a clamour of crows that 

fly 

In from the wide flats where the spent tides 
mourn 

To yon, their rocking roosts in pines wind-torn ; 
A line of grey snake-fence, that zigzags by 
A pond, and cattle ; from the homestead nigh 

The long deep summonings of the supper horn. 

Black on the ridge, against that lonely flush, 

A cart, and stoop-necked oxen; ranged 
beside 

Some barrels; and the day-worn harvest- 
folk, 
Here emptying their baskets, jar the hush 

With hollow thunders. Down the dusk 
hillside 

Lumbers the wain; and day fades out like 
smoke. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



— 40 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

THE SOWER 

A brown, sad-coloured hillside, where the soil 

Fresh from the frequent harrow, deep and 
fine, 

Lies bare ; no break in the remote sky-line, 
Save where a flock of pigeons streams aloft, 
Startled from feed in some low-lying croft, 

Or far-off spires with yellow of sunset shine ; 

And here the Sower, unwittingly divine, 
Exerts the silent forethought of his toil. 

Alone he treads the glebe, his measured stride 
Dumb in the yielding soil ; and though small 

joy 
Dwell in his heavy face, as spreads the blind 
Pale grain from his dispensing palm aside, 
This plodding churl grows great in his em- 
ploy;— 
Godlike, he makes provision for mankind. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



41 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

THE FLIGHT OF THE GEESE 

I hear the low wind wash the softening snow, 
The low tide loiter down the shore. The 

night, 
Full filled with April forecast, hath no light. 

The salt wave on the sedge-flat pulses slow. 

Through the hid furrows lisp in murmurous 
flow 
The thaw's shy ministers; and hark! the 

height 
Of heaven grows weird and loud with unseen 
flight 
Of strong hosts prophesying as they go ! 

High through the drenched and hollow night 
their wings 
Beat northward hard on winter's trail. The 
sound 
Of their confused and solemn voices, borne 
Athwart the dark to their long Arctic morn, 

Comes with a sanction and an awe profound, 
A boding of unknown, foreshadowed things. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



— 42- 



ANTHOLOGY 

THE HEAL-ALL 

Dear blossom of the wayside kin, 
Whose homely, wholesome name 

Tells of a potency within 
To win thee country fame ! 

The sterile hillocks are thy home, 

Beside the windy path ; 
The sky, a pale and lonely dome, 

Is all thy vision hath. 

Thy unobtrusive purple face 

Amid the meagre grass 
Greets me with long-remembered grace, 

And cheers me as I pass. 

And I, outworn by petty care, 

And vexed with trivial wrong, 
I heed thy brave and joyous air 

Until my heart grows strong. 

A lesson from the Power I crave 

That moves in me and thee, 
That makes thee modest, calm, and brave, 

Me restless as the sea. 



43 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Thy simple wisdom I would gain, — 

To heal the hurt Life brings, 
With kindly cheer, and faith in pain, 

And joy of common things. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



AN EPITAPH FOR A HUSBANDMAN 

He who would start and rise 
Before the crowing cocks, — 

No more he lifts his eyes, 
Whoever knocks. 

He who before the stars 
Would call the cattle home, — 

They wait about the bars 
For him to come. 

Him at whose hearty calls 

The farmstead woke again 
The horses in their stalls 

Expect in vain. 

Busy, and blithe, and bold, 
He laboured for the morrow, — 

The plough his hands would hold 
Rusts in the furrow. 

— 44 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

His fields he had to leave, 

His orchards cool and dim ; 
The clods he used to cleave 

Now cover him. 

But the green, growing things 

Lean kindly to his sleep, — 
White roots and wandering strings, 

Closer they creep. 

Because he loved them long 
And with them bore his part, 

Tenderly now they throng 
About his heart. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



AT TIDE WATER 

The red and yellow of the Autumn salt-grass, 
The grey flats, and the yellow-grey full 
tide, 
The lonely stacks, the grave expanse of 
marshes, — 
O Land wherein my memories abide, 



45 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

I have come back that you may make me 
tranquil, 

Resting a little at your heart of peace, 
Remembering much amid your serious leisure, 

Forgetting more amid your large release. 
For yours the wisdom of the night and morning, 

The word of the inevitable years, 
The open Heaven's unobscured communion, 

And the dim whisper of the wheeling spheres. 
The great things and the terrible I bring you, 

To be illumined in your spacious breath, — 
Love, and the ashes of desire, and anguish, 

Strange laughter, and the unhealing wound 
of death. 
These in the world,all these, have come uponme, 

Leaving me mute and shaken with surprise. 
Oh, turn them in your measureless contem- 
plation, 

And in their mastery teach me to be wise. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 

RECESSIONAL 

Now along the solemn heights 
Fade the Autumn's altar-lights ; 

Down the great earth's glimmering chancel 
Glide the days and nights. 

— 46 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Little kindred of the grass, 
Like a shadow in a glass 

Falls the dark and falls the stillness ; 
We must rise and pass. 

We must rise and follow, wending 
Where the nights and days have ending,- 

Pass in order pale and slow 
Unto sleep extending. 

Little brothers of the clod, 
Soul of fire and seed of sod, 

We must fare into the silence 
At the knees of God. 

Little comrades of the sky 
Wing to wing we wander by, 
Going, going, going, going, 
Softly as a sigh. 

Hark, the moving shapes confer, 
Globe of dew T and gossamer, 

Fading and ephemeral spirits 
In the dusk astir. 

Moth and blossom, blade and bee, 
Worlds must go as well as we, 

In the long procession joining 
Mount, and star, and sea. 

— 47 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Toward the shadowy brink we climb 
Where the round year rolls sublime, 
Rolls, and drops, and falls forever 
In the vast of time ; 

Like a plummet plunging deep 
Past the utmost reach of sleep, 

Till remembrance has no longer 
Care to laugh or weep. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C Page & Co. (Inc.). 



ON THE CREEK 

Dear Heart, the noisy strife 
And bitter carpings cease. 

Here is the lap of life. 
Here are the lips of peace. 

Afar from stir of streets, 
The city's dust and din, 

What healing silence meets 
And greets us gliding in ! 

Our light birch silent floats ; 
Soundless the paddle dips. 
Yon sunbeam thick with motes 
Athro' the leafage slips, 

— 48 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

To light the iris wings 

Of dragon-flies alit 
On lily-leaves, and things 

Of gauze that float and flit. 

Above the water's brink 

Hush'd winds make summer riot ; 
Our thirsty spirits drink 

Deep, deep, the summer quiet. 

We slip the world's grey husk, 
Emerge, and spread new plumes ; 

In sunbeam-fretted dusk, 
Thro' populous golden glooms, 

Like thistledown we slide, 
Two disembodied dreams, — 

With spirits alert, wide-eyed, 
Explore the perfume-streams. 

For scents of various grass 
Stream down the veering breeze ; 

Warm puffs of honey pass 
From flowering linden-trees ; 

And fragrant gusts of gum, 
Breath of the balm-tree buds, 

With fern-brake odours, come 
From intricate solitudes. 

— 49 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

The elm-tops are astir 

With flirt of idle wings. 
Hark to the grackles' chirr 

Whene'er an elm-bough swings ! 

From off yon ash-limb sere 

Out-thrust amid green branches, 

Keen like an azure spear 
A kingfisher down launches. 

Far up the creek his calls 
And lessening laugh retreat. 

Again the silence falls, 
And soft the green hours fleet. 

They fleet with drowsy hum 

Of insects on the wing. 
We sigh — the end must come ! 

We taste our pleasure's sting. 

No more, then, need we try 

The rapture to regain. 
We feel our day slip by, 

And cling to it in vain. 

But, Dear, keep thou in mind 
These moments swift and sweet ! 

Their memory thou shalt find 
Illume the common street; 

— 50 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

And thro' the dust and din, 
Smiling, thy heart shall hear 

Quiet waters lapsing thin, 
And locusts shrilling clear. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



TANTRAMAR REVISITED 

Summers and summers have come, and gone 

with the flight of the swallow; 
Sunshine and thunder have been, storm, and 

winter, and frost; 
Many and many a sorrow has all but died from 

remembrance, 
Many a dream of joy fall'n in the shadow of 

pain. 
Hands of chance and change have marred, or 

moulded, or broken, 
Busy with spirit or flesh, all I most have 

adored; 
Even the bosom of Earth is strewn with heavier 

shadows, — 
Only in these green hills, aslant to the sea, no 

change ! 
Here where the road that has climbed from the 

inland valleys and woodlands, 

— 51 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Dips from the hill-tops down, straight to the 

base of the hills, — 
Here, from my vantage-ground, I can see the 

scattering houses, 
Stained with time, set warm in orchards, 

meadows, and wheat, 
Dotting the broad bright slopes outspread to 

southward and eastward. 
Wind-swept all day long, blown by the south- 
east wind. 
Skirting the sunbright uplands stretches a 

riband of meadow, 
Shorn of the labouring grass, bulwarked well 

from the sea, 
Fenced on its seaward border with long clay 

dykes from the turbid 
Surge and flow of the tides vexing the West- 
moreland shores. 
Yonder, toward the left, lie broad the West- 
moreland marshes, — 
Miles on miles they extend, level, and grassy, 

and dim, 
Clear from the long red sweep of flats to the 

sky in the distance, 
Save for the outlying heights, green-rampired 
Cumberland Point; 

— 52 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Miles on miles outrolled, and the river-chan- 
nels divide them, — 

Miles on miles of green, barred by the hurtling 
gusts. 

Miles on miles beyond the tawny bay is 

Minudie. 
There are the low blue hills ; villages gleam at 

their feet. 
Nearer a white sail shines across the water, 

and nearer 
Still are the slim, grey masts of fishing boats 

dry on the flats. 
Ah, how well I remember those wide red flats, 

above tide-mark 
Pale with scurf of the salt, seamed and baked 

in the sun ! 
Well I remember the piles of blocks and ropes, 

and the net-reels 
Wound with the beaded nets, dripping and 

dark from the sea ! 
Now at this season the nets are unwound; they 

hang from the rafters 
Over the fresh-stowed hay in upland barns, and 

the wind 
Blows all day through the chinks, with the 

streaks of sunlight, and sways them 

— 53 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Softly at will ; or they lie heaped in the gloom of 

a loft. 
Now at this season the reels are empty and 

idle ; I see them 
Over the lines of the dykes, over the gossiping 

grass. 
Now at this season they swing in the long, 

strong wind, thro' the lonesome 
Golden afternoon, shunned by the foraging 

gulls. 
Near about sunset the crane will journey home- 
ward above them ; 
Round them, under the moon, all the calm 

night long, 
Winnowing soft grey wings of marsh-owls 

wander and wander, 
Now to the broad, lit marsh, now to the dusk of 

the dike. 

Soon, thro' their dew-wet frames, in the live 
keen freshness of morning, 

Out of the teeth of the dawn blows back the 
awakening wind. 

Then, as the blue day mounts, and the low- 
shot shafts of the sunlight 

Glance from the tide to the shore, gossamers 
jewelled with dew 

— 54 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Sparkle and wave, where late sea-spoiling 

fathoms of drift-net 
Myriad-meshed, uploomed sombrely over the 

land. 

Well I remember it all. The salt, raw scent 

of the margin; 
While, with men at the windlass, groaned each 

reel, and the net, 
Surging in ponderous lengths, uprose and 

coiled in its station ; 
Then each man to his home, — well I remember 

it all! 

Yet, as I sit and watch, this present peace of 
the landscape, — 

Stranded boats, these reels empty and idle, 
the hush, 

One grey hawk slow-wheeling above yon clus- 
ter of hay-stacks, — 

More than the old-time stir this stillness wel- 
comes me home. 

Ah, the old-time stir, how once it stung me with 
rapture, — 

Old-time sweetness, the winds freighted with 
honey and salt ! 

Yet will I stay my steps and not go down to the 
marsh-land,— 

— 55 — 
R.— 5 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Muse and recall far off, rather remember than 

see, — 
Lest on too close sight I miss the darling 

illusion, 
Spy at their task even here the hands of chance 

and change. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C Page & Co. (Inc.). 



THE HERMIT-THRUSH 

Over the tops of the trees, 

And over the shallow stream, 
The shepherd of sunset frees 

The amber phantoms of dream. 
The time is the time of vision ; 

The hour is the hour of calm ; 
Hark ! On the stillness Elysian 
Breaks how divine a psalm ! 

Oh, clear in the sphere of the air, 

Clear, clear, tender and far, 
Our aspiration of prayer 
Unto eve's clear star! 

O singer serene, secure ! 

From thy throat of silver and dew 
What transport lonely and pure, 

Unchanging, endlessly new, — 

— 56 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

An unremembrance of mirth, 

And a contemplation of tears, 
As if the musing of earth 

Communed with the dreams of the years ! 
Oh, clear in the sphere of the air, 

Clear, clear, tender and far, 
Our aspiration of prayer 
Unto eve's clear star! 

O cloistral ecstatic ! thy cell 

In the cool green aisles of the leaves 
Is the shrine of a power by whose spell 

Whoso hears aspires and believes ! 
O hermit of evening ! thine hour 

Is the sacrament of desire, 
When love hath a heavenlier flower, 
And passion a holier fire ! 

Oh, clear in the sphere of the air, 

Clear, clear, tender and far, 
Our aspiration of prayer 
Unto eve's clear star! 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C Page & Co. (Inc.). 



57 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

THE IDEAL 

To Her, when life was little worth, 
When hope, a tide run low, 

Between dim shores of emptiness 
Almost forgot to flow, — 

Faint with the city's fume and stress 

I came at night to Her. 
Her cool white fingers on my face — 

How wonderful they were ! 

More dear they were to fevered lids 

Than lilies cooled in dew. 
They touched my lips with tenderness, 

Till life was born anew. 

The city's clamour died in calm ; 

And once again I heard 
The moon-white woodland stillnesses 

Enchanted by a bird. 

The wash of far, remembered waves ; 

The sigh of lapsing streams; 
And one old garden's lilac leaves 

Conferring in their dreams. 



58- 



ANTHOLOGY 

A breath from childhood daisy fields 

Came back to me again, 
Here in the city's weary miles 

Of city-wearied men. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C Page & Co. (Inc.). 



TWILIGHT ON SIXTH AVENUE 

Over the tops of the houses 

Twilight and sunset meet. 
The green, diaphanous dusk 

Sinks to the eager street. 

Astray in the tangle of roofs 

Wanders a wind of June. 
The dial shines in the clock-tower 

Like the face of a strange-scrawled moon. 

The narrowing lines of the houses 

Palely begin to gleam, 
And the hurrying crowds fade softly 

Like an army in a dream. 

Above the vanishing faces 

A phantom train flares on 
With a voice that shakes the shadows, — 

Diminishes, and is gone. 

— 59 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

And I walk with the journeying throng 

In such a solitude 
As where a lonely ocean 

Washes a lonely wood. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



NEW LIFE 

Since I have felt upon my face thy tears 

I have been consecrated, Dear, to thee. 
Cleansed from the stain of hot and frivolous 
years 
By thy white passion, I have bowed the knee, 
Worshipping thee as sovereign and as saint, 
While with desire all human thou wert 
leaning 
To my long kiss, thy lips and eyes grown 
faint, 
Thy spirit eloquent with love's new meaning. 

Since I have seen within thy heart my heaven, 
Life has been changed and earth has grown 
divine. 
Hope, health, and wisdom, these thy love hath 
given, 
And if my song have any worth, 'tis thine. 

— 60 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Thy hands are benediction, Dear. Thy feet 
Are flowers upon the altar of my soul, 

Whereat my holiest aspirations meet, 
Humble and wondering in thy rapt control. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc.). 



A NOCTURNE OF CONSECRATION 

I talked about you, Dear, the other night, 
Having myself alone with my delight. 
Alone with dreams and memories of you, 
All the divine-houred summer stillness through 
I talked of life, of love the always new, 
Of tears, and joy, — yet only talked of you. 

To the sweet air 

That breathed upon my face 

The spirit of lilies in a leafy place, 

Your breath's caress, the lingering of your hair, 

I said — "In all your wandering through the 

dusk, 
Your waitings on the marriages of flowers 
Through the long, intimate hours 
When soul and sense, desire and love confer, 
You must have known the best that God has 

made. 
What do you know of her?" 

— 61 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Said the sweet air — 
"Since I have touched her lips, 
Bringing the consecration of her kiss, 
Half passion and half prayer, 
And all for you, 

My various lore has suffered an eclipse. 
I have forgot all else of sweet I knew." 

To the wise earth, 

Kind, and companionable, and dewy cool, 

Fair beyond words to tell, as you are fair, 

And cunning past compare 

To leash all heaven in a windless pool, 

I said — "The mysteries of death and birth 

Are in your care. 

You love, and sleep ; you drain life to the lees ; 

And wonderful things you know. 

Angels have visited you, and at your knees 

Learned what I learn forever at her eyes, 

The pain that still enhances Paradise. 

You in your breast felt her first pulses stir; 

And you have thrilled to the light touch of her 

feet, 
Blindingly sweet. 
Now make me wise with some new word of 

her." 

— 62 — 



ANTHOLOGY 

Said the wise earth — 
"She is not all my child. 
But the wild spirit that rules her heart- 
beats wild 
Is of diviner birth 

And kin to the unknown light beyond my ken. 
All I can give to her have I not given? 
Strength to be glad, to suffer, and to know ; 
The sorcery that subdues the souls of men ; 
The beauty that is as the shadow of heaven ; 
The hunger of love 
And unspeakable joy thereof. 
And these are dear to her because of you. 
You need no word of mine to make you wise 
Who worship at her eyes 
And find there life and love forever new !" 

To the white stars, 
Eternal and all-seeing, 
In their wide home beyond the wells of being, 
I said — "There is a little cloud that mars 
The mystical perfection of her kiss. 
Mine, mine, she is, 
As far as lip to lip, and heart to heart, 
And spirit to spirit when lips and hands must 
part, 



63 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Can make her mine. But there is more than 

this, — 
More, more of her to know. 
For still her soul escapes me unaware, 
To dwell in secret where I may not go. 
Take, and uplift me. Make me wholly hers." 

Said the white stars, the heavenly mini- 
sters, — 
"This life is brief, but it is only one. 
Before to-morrow's sun 
For one or both of you it may be done. 
This love of yours is only just begun. 
Will all the ecstasy that may be won 
Before this life its little course has run 
At all suffice 

The love that agonizes in your eyes? 
Therefore be wise. 

Content you with the wonder of love that lies 
Between her lips and underneath her eyes. 
If more you should surprise, 
What would be left to hope from Paradise? 
In other worlds expect another joy 
Of her, which blundering fate shall not annoy, 
Nor time nor change destroy." 



64 



ANTHOLOGY 

So, Dear, I talked the long, divine night 

through, 
And felt you in the chrismal balms of dew. 
The thing then learned 
Has ever since within my bosom burned — 
One life is not enough for love of you. 

From "Poems" (new complete edition), by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. Copyright 1903 by L. C. Page & Co. (Inc..) 



FISHERS OF THE AIR 

The lake lay in a deep and sun-soaked valley 
facing south, sheltered from the sea-winds by 
a high hog-back of dark green spruce and 
hemlock forest, broken sharply here and there 
by out-croppings of white granite. 

Beyond the hog-back, some three or four 
miles away, the green seas creamed and 
thundered in sleepless turmoil against the 
towering black cliffs, clamorous with seagulls. 
But over the lake brooded a blue and glittering 
silence, broken only, at long intervals, by the 
long-drawn, wistful flute-cry of the Canada 
whitethroat from some solitary tree-top : 

Lean — lean — lean-to-me — lean-to-me — 
— lean-to-me — of all bird voices the one most 
poignant with loneliness and longing. 

— 65 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

On the side of the lake nearest to the hog- 
back the dark green of the forest came down to 
within forty or fifty paces of the water's edge, 
and was fringed by a narrow ribbon of very 
light, tender green — a dense, low growth of 
Indian willow, elder shrub, and withe-wood, 
tangled with white clematis and starred with 
wild convolvulus. From the sharply-defined 
edge of this gracious tangle a beach of clean 
sand, dazzlingly white, sloped down to and slid 
beneath the transparent golden lip of the 
amber-tinted water. The sand, both below 
and above the water's edge, was of an amazing 
radiance. Being formed by the infinitely 
slow breaking down of the ancient granite, 
through ages of alternating suns and rains and 
heats and frosts, it consisted purely of the 
indestructible, coarse white crystals of the 
quartz, whose facets caught the sun like a 
drift of diamonds. 

The opposite shores of the lake were low and 
swampy, studded here and there with tall, 
naked, weather-bleached "rampikes" — the 
trunks of ancient fir trees blasted and stripped 
by some long-past forest fire. These melan- 
choly ghosts of trees rose from a riotously 
gold-green carpet of rank marsh-grasses, 

— 6G — 



ANTHOLOGY 

sweeping around in an interminable, un- 
broken curve to the foot of the lake, where, 
through the cool shadows of water-ash and 
balsam-poplar, the trout-haunted outlet stream 
rippled away musically to join the sea some 
seven or eight miles farther on. All along 
the gold-green sweep of the marsh-grass 
spread acre upon acre of the flat leaves of the 
water-lily, starred with broad, white, golden- 
hearted, exquisitely-perfumed blooms, the 
paradise of the wild bees and honey-loving 
summer flies. 

Over this vast crystal bowl of green-and- 
amber solitude domed a sky of cloudless blue, 
and high in the blue hung a great bird, slowly 
wheeling. From his height he held in view the 
intense sparkling of the sea beyond the hog- 
back, the creaming of the surf about the outer 
rocks, and the sudden upspringing of the gulls 
like a puff of blown petals, as some wave, 
higher and more impetuous than its predeces- 
sor, drove them from their perches. But the 
aerial watcher had heed only for the lake below 
him, lying windless and unshadowed in the 
sun. His piercing eyes, jewel-bright, and with 
an amazing range of vision, could penetrate 
to all the varying depths of the lake and detect 

— 67 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

the movements of its finny hordes. The 
great, sluggish lake-trout, or "togue," usually 
lurking in the obscurest deeps, the shining, 
active, vermilion-spotted brook-trout, forag- 
ing voraciously nearer the shore and the sur- 
face, the fat, mud-loving "suckers," rooting 
the oozy bottom like pigs among the roots of 
the water-lilies, the silvery chub and the green- 
and-gold, fiercely-spined perch haunting the 
weedy feeding-grounds down toward the 
outlet — all these he observed and differenti- 
ated with an expert's eye, attempting to foresee 
which ones, in their feeding or their play, were 
likely soonest to approach the surface of their 
glimmering golden world. 

From "Wisdom of the Wilderness," by permission of 
The Macmillan Company, New York. 



-68- 



AN APPRECIATION 



AN APPRECIATION 




HE POETRY of a country will 
naturally reflect the outstand- 
ing features and conditions 
of its existence, as that of 
France, for example, reflects 
the intellectual liberalism of 
its people, its frank curiosity about life and its 
critical sense of art; or that of Germany its 
love of systematic exposition and philosophical 
interpretation of life; or that of Norway the 
imaginative mysticism of the Norseman, the 
unforgettable glories of its early Hakons and 
Olafs, and the charm which its rock-bound 
coast, its fiords and lonely gaards or farmsteads 
have for the Norwegian mind. So in Canada, 
which as a united Dominion is still in its 
youth, one might expect that the natural as- 
pects of the land, which are so varied and on so 
vast a scale, would exercise an exceptional in- 
fluence on the mind of her poets. 

Canadian poets are by birthright nature- 
poets and take naturally to singing of woods 

— 71 — 

R.— 6 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

whom Cowper's description of the Ouse, or 
Thomson's picture of the fields in winter were 
still the models. So Charles Mair describes 
what was then the wilderness of the West : 

Within the vale a lakelet, lashed with flowers, 
Lay like a liquid eye among the hills, 
Revealing in its depth the fulgent light 
Of snowy cloud-land and cerulean skies. 



And all was silent save the rustling leaf, 
The gadding insect, or the grebe's lone cry. 
Or where Saskatchewan, with turbid moan, 
Deep sunken in the plain, his torrent poured. 
Here Loneliness possessed her realm supreme, 
Her prairies all about her, undeflowered, 
Pulsing beneath the summer sun, and sweet 
With virgin air and waters undefiled. 

— The Last Bison. 



Or it is Sangster celebrating the wide harvest 
fields of Canada : 

Where'er the various tinted woods, 
In all their autumn splendour dressed, 
Impart their gold and purple dyes 
To distant hills and farthest skies 
Along the crimson west. 

The ethical tone of those older poets had, of 
course, the character of a securely established 
outlook on life. It was a cheerful, reverent 

— 74 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

optimism in the main, which was not seriously 
disturbed by the vicissitudes of the individual's 
experience. Here and there the pensive 
melancholy of Gray or even the sombre pathos 
of Johnson might make itself felt as a char- 
acteristic heritage from the 18th century. The 
sublimity, the pious reverence, the ethical 
standards were always of the same type. 
How bravely they all, Mair, McLachlan, 
Fidelis, sing of the simple life, of honest toil 
and "cheerful labour, heaven-blest . . . 
with willing hands and accents musically 
blythe." No doubt, like all established styles 
and ways of thought, it could easily become a 
kind of poetic rhetoric, half conventional in 
its language and sentiment, though requiring, 
of course, some exceptional gift of feeling and 
observation to use it with effect. 

In 1864 the federation of the different 
Canadian provinces naturally awoke a fuller 
consciousness of a national life, and while it 
was a stimulus to nearly every form of the 
national energy, it seems to have given some- 
thing like new life to the poetic productivity 
of Canada. In the eighties, with the first 
generation arising under the new conditions, 
Canada fairly burst into song, with a group of 

— 75 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

tumescent pageant of spring and summer, with 
its moving, multitudinous music of Pan heard 
in all the voices of the reawakened earth, while 
Pauline Johnson naturally likes to linger 
amongst the haunting shadows and misty 
evening lights on shores and streams where 
her Indian forefathers once dwelt. 

The chief influences on the new singers were 
those of the three great English poets : Words- 
worth with his penetrating quality and new pre- 
cision of descriptive touch; Keats with his deli- 
cate impressionism and the new imaginative 
reach of his phrase, which brought fresh tints 
from a celestial vision of earth and sky; and, 
most popular and readily assimilated of all, the 
idyllic manner of Tennyson with its temperate 
sestheticism and calmly measured melody. 
There were new notes in all these, a new mode 
of feeling and expression which the poetry of 
the eighties in Canada naturally sought to 
absorb. You can see the difference at once 
in the descriptive manner of the new poets, in 
the sensuous or mystical intensity of the verb 
and in the impressionistic delicacy of the 
epithet. The dawn no longer chills, it "bites ;" 
it does not rise, it "leaps;" it is nothing so 
common as rosy, but has some elusive epithet 

— 78 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

attached to it, such as "inviolate," or "in- 
communicable." Darkness and night "reel"; 
the sea, the wind, the rain, the trees, all "sob" ; 
the stillness of the woods is "expectant"; 
terms like "elemental," "largess," "lure," 
"sinister," slipped from their older and nar- 
rower usage into a wider power of suggestion. 
It was an evolution of a new poetic diction 
which reflected the more intimate sense of the 
mystery of life and nature which was arising 
in the new generation. A new and mystic 
form of romanticism was coming into vogue. 

As a poet, Roberts has his own special note 
in the choir. His first essays were so ob- 
viously modelled on the style of Keats that 
they can hardly be considered more than 
clever studies done by the disciple in the 
master's atelier. Of course he soon passed 
out of that stage, yet there was something in 
the manner he acquired there that remained 
a permanent characteristic of his work. The 
poetry of Keats was a pure and noble form of 
aestheticism which made a perfect harmony 
between the good and the beautiful. Like all 
aestheticism it had a deep sympathy with the 
great idealisms of the past which had estab- 
lished themselves as traditions of art. In 

— 79 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

elegies, Swinburne's passionate interpreta- 
tions of the darker elements in Greek myth- 
ology, and the tales of Morris, though these 
owed too much to Keats and Chaucer and 
Spenser to have the quality of an original 
vision, made a memorable epoch of neo-clas- 
sical poetry. It was natural that a young 
Canadian poet like Roberts, with an academic 
training, and bred in the high traditions of 
literature cherished at the Fredericton par- 
sonage and the collegiate school where Dr. 
George Parkin was head master, should think 
that here was one of the grand highways of 
poetry and begin with an ambitious treatment 
of great classical legends in the manner of 
Keats. In "Orion," "Orpheus," "Ariadne," 
"Memnon," Roberts imitates the style of the 
master with a skill which is full of promise in 
a poet who was not yet twenty. The rich 
colouring of Keats, his luxurious phrase, his 
delicate impressionism, his favourite lyrical 
cries and manner of embellishing his theme 
have at times the full flavour of his model ; the 
opening stanza of "Ariadne" for example : 

Hung like a rich pomegranate o'er the sea 
The ripened moon ; along the tranced sand 

The feather-shadowed ferns drooped dreamfully 

The solitude's evading harmony 

Mingled remotely over sea and land. 

— 82 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

But these early poems — written before 1880 — 
are too much like mere copies of the master's 
work. More mature examples of Roberts' 
neo-classical work are found in his later 
"Actaeon," and "Marsyas." "Actaeon," which 
was published in 1887, is a tale of metamor- 
phosis in the style of Ovid, but the poet has 
given it a certain piquancy by framing it in 
Browning's manner as a tale told by a Plat- 
aean woman who witnessed the miraculous 
transformation and was converted by it from 
scepticism to a belief in the existence of the 
Olympian gods. The tale is well told, the 
tense psychological style of Browning and his 
brusque phrase being harmoniously enough 
mingled with the picturesque idyllic touches 
and measured melody of Tennyson. But it is 
weak at the centre where Browning is always 
so strong, because it does not realize for us in 
any deep or instructive way what the struggle 
of faith and doubt may have been in Greek life. 
The scepticism of the Platsean woman is vaguely 
general, and to make her conversion dependent 
on the actual sight of Diana performing her 
miracle of vengeance is to mix mythological 
fable in a rather superficial way with the actual 
strain and experience of life. One might as 
well shuffle some of the credulous tales of 

— 83 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

does not even hint at the fundamental opposi- 
tion here between Apolline melody and the 
music of the goat-foot deity who loves shrill 
noises. Only one pathetic line hints at the 
tragedy to come : 

The satyr pipes who soon shall pipe no more 

The picture of the forest glade, where poor 
Pan sits fluting, has true atmosphere and gives 
a very fair idea of the command Roberts has 
of the classic Parnassian style : 

A little grey hill-glade, close turfed, withdrawn 
Beyond resort or heed of trafficking feet, 
Ringed round with slim trunks of the mountain ash. 
Through the slim trunks and scarlet branches flash — 
Beneath the clear, chill glitterings of the dawn — 
Far-off, the crests, where down the rosy shore 
The Pontic surges beat ... . 
There Marsyas sits 

nor heeds 

The young god standing in his branchy place, 
The languor on his lips, and in his face, 
Divinely inaccessible, the scorn. 

On the whole this classical poetry represents 
fairly enough certain affinities which the 
poetic talent of Roberts has for classical moulds 
of composition with their clear plastic relief, 
grandeur of outline and elevation of style. 
No doubt the promise and power which the 

— 86 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

early work of Roberts shows were enough to 
justify the high hopes of a poetic career which 
he expressed freely enough then. There is 
all the purity and ardour of spirit character- 
istic of the best Victorian period in his "Epistle 
to Bliss Carman," written when he was in his 
last year as a student at the University of New 
Brunswick. Of course he is modest enough 
to express some doubt of what the future may 
have in store for him ; he is aware the ascent is 
high and hard, but the doubt is evidently not 
very painful. The high consciousness of 
creative power makes him disdainful of all 
meaner things. He seeks only the pure gifts 
of the Muses. 

All songless ways, whose goals are bare and mute, 

but looking hopefully to a higher path, if it be 
possible : 

But one path leads from out my very feet, — 

The only one which lures me which is sweet. 

Ah ! might I follow it, methinketh then 

My childhood's brightest dreams would come again. 



Up steep ascents, thro' bitter obstacles, 
But interspersed with glorious secret dells ; 
And vocal with rich promise of delight, 
And ever brightening with an inward light 

— 87 — 
R.— 7 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

That soothes and blesses all the ways that lie 
In reach of its soft light and harmony. 
And were this path made for my following, 
Then would I work and sing, and work and sing. 



It is a strain not infrequently heard in Cana- 
dian poets who have the confidence not only 
of youth but of a young nation behind them. 
How far promise and potentiality will make 
themselves good, against the obstructions of a 
world that has naturally some difficulty in 
judging such high claims, is always a question. 
High disdain is so easy at twenty and the 
gilded visions of a clever youth have the same 
glory and grandeur whether they are destined 
to an immortal place in history or fated to 
shrink with time into pathetic reminiscences. 
But, after all, the outward obstructions 
are of little account compared with the self- 
discipline and intellectual askesis needed to 
keep the poet at the height of his task, which 
is that of expressing the higher significance of 
life truly in terms of his own experience. For 
in the matter of art the time was passing from 
a romantic to a critical and realistic treatment 
of life, and Roberts hardly seems to be aware 
of all that was implied in that change, though 
Browning and Meredith were always calling 



AN APPRECIATION 

the new note clearly enough. It is evident, 
for example, that in Roberts' hands the neo- 
classical compositions were highly artificial 
products and did not represent any deep ex- 
pression of his own experience as the pensive 
thoughtfulness of the "Thyrsis" does for 
Arnold, or the passionate strain of "Anactoria" 
and the "Hymn to Proserpine" for Swin- 
burne, He remains too purely an artist 
carving out shapes in a fable-land of fancy. 
But, amongst these classical compositions, the 
"Ave!" a classical threnody which Roberts 
wrote for the Shelley centenary in 1892 can 
count as an exception. It commences, indeed, 
very irrelevantly with a number of stanzas 
describing the scenery of his native Tant- 
ramar and its tumultuous tides, from which he 
passes by a most awkward transition to his 
theme : 

The sharp, fierce tides that chafe the shores of earth 
In endless and controlless ebb and flow, 

Strangely akin you seem to him whose birth 
One hundred years ago 

With fiery succour to the ranks of song 

Defied the ancient gates of wrath and wrong. 

That is a disenchanting glimpse of cold 
artifice in the poet's work. But the char- 
acterizations of Shelley's life and genius which 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

follow are brilliantly imaginative and in fine 
harmony with the genius of Shelley: in parti- 
cular the apostrophe to the Baths of Caracalla 
and the sky of Rome, which Shelley himself 
tells us was his inspiration in writing the 
"Prometheus Unbound," is a fine piece of 
work with a sweep of vision and an impassioned 
music not unworthy of the theme : 

O Baths of Caracalla, arches clad 

In such transcendent rhapsodies of green 
That one might guess the sprites of spring were glad 
For your majestic ruin, yours the scene, 
The illuminating air of sense and thought; 

And yours the enchanted light, O skies of Rome, 
Where the giant vision into form was wrought; 

Beneath your blazing dome 
The intensest song our language ever knew 
Beat up exhaustless to the blinding blue ! 

There are the usual elegiac cries, "Mourn, 
Mediterranean waters, mourn. ,, . . "Not 
thou, not thou, — for thou went in the light of 
the unspeakable, " etc., which may pass as 
part of the grand conventions of this poetic 
form. More doubtful is the Elysian vision in 
which Homer, Plato, Dante, Shakespeare 
and others of the great ones assemble to greet 
the newcomer, and still more doubtful that 
conception of Shelley's disembodied spirit 
looking on his own funeral pyre "with curious 

— 90 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

regard." Roberts' inspiration is abundant, 
flowing, forthright, but it wants the delicacy 
of instinct, the warning voice that tells when to 
stop. But the "Ave!" is a splendid effort, 
full of fiery rapture and impassioned music. 
The great ten-line stanza with its strong 
cadences is maintained with unfailing vigour 
and with the superb rhetorical accent which is 
so characteristic of Roberts. 

II 

It may be true that classical themes and the 
high conventions of art find no very warm 
reception in a young country like Canada. 
There is no large public for such, and in any 
case the touch must be exquisite, unique, full 
of a potent originality that makes such things 
really live. Roberts has such touches in this 
field and yet does not quite succeed in produc- 
ing perfect and satisfying wholes in it. His 
artistic sense of a whole is too uncertain, too 
uncritical of itself. He is like a gifted im- 
proviser, full of happy inspirations, but ready 
to take the first suggestion or descend without 
compunction into the obvious and the com- 
monplace. It is perhaps partly for these 
reasons that Roberts is most satisfying as a 

— 91 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

poet of nature and has left the deepest impres- 
sion on the public. A scene of nature is a 
fixed phenomenon and to some extent fur- 
nishes the framework for its descriptive treat- 
ment. A careless touch or an ill-judged ex- 
pansion does not work so fatally on the general 
effect as in more purely imaginative composi- 
tion. As a painter of typical Canadian scenes 
no one has done so much to fix in the minds 
of his countrymen the general features of 
pastoral life and landscape, especially as they 
are found at the coast and amongst the farm- 
steads of his native New Brunswick. Not to 
speak of the well known Tantramar poems, 
the Sonnet Sequence alone, which bears the 
title of "Songs of the Common Day," is 
monumental for the completeness of the 
treatment and the clear plastic relief with 
which everything is pictured. It is all there, 
the ploughing and sowing, the spring pas- 
tures, the fir-woods, the "rugged acres" of 
the clearings, the buekwheat fields "with 
smell of home and honey on the breeze," 
the May morning, the windy bright September 
and Indian summer. 



— 92 



AN APPRECIATION 

INDIAN SUMMER 

What touch hath set the breathing hills afire 
With amethyst, to quench them with a tear 
Of ecstasy? These common fields appear 

The consecrated home of hopes past number. 

So many visions, so entranced a slumber, 
Such dreams possess the noonday's luminous sphere, 
That earth, content with knowing heaven so near, 

Hath done with aspiration and desire. 

The potato harvest, the mowing, the old 
barn, the midwinter thaw, the clamorous flight 
of the wild-geese through the darkness of the 
night, repeat the same motif. These are the 
well-remembered scenes of his boyhood, and 
you can see the clear precision of boyhood's 
vision and impressions in many a trait, in the 
description, for example, of the old barn : 

Tons upon tons the brown-green fragrant hay 

O'erbrims the mows beyond the time-warped eaves 
Up to the rafters where the spider weaves, 

Though few flies wander his secluded way. 

Through a high chink one lonely golden ray 
Wherein the dust is dancing, slants unstirred; 
In the dry hush some rustlings light are heard, 

Of winter-hidden mice at furtive play. 

There is, on the whole, a healthy objectivity 
in Robert's descriptive manner; the landscape 
and its features are given in solid outlines and 
with a precision of detail that might serve, like 
Cowper's descriptions, to guide a painter's 

— 93 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS. 

composition. But this clear plastic outline is 
exquisitely softened and refined by that deli- 
cate impressionism which he learned in the 
school of Keats, and its result is a fine blending 
of realistic observation with a spiritualized 
vision which can render very successfully the 
vague, evasive elemental beauty of nature. 
This is the specific quality of Roberts' nature- 
poetry and belongs to what is deepest and 
most original in his poetic endowment. He 
has always the glance and vision in this 
region. I don't know that the foreboding 
autumnal mood of nature has been better ren- 
dered anywhere than in his September sonnet : 

This windy, bright September afternoon 

My heart is wide awake, yet full of dreams. 

The air, alive with hushed confusion, teems 
With scent of grain-fields, and a mystic rune, 
Foreboding of the fall of summer soon, 

Keeps swelling and subsiding; till there seems, 
O'er all the world of valleys, hills, and streams, 

Only the wind's inexplicable tune. 

Nor could anything be finer than his impres- 
sion of evening at the farmstead "when the 
cattle come to drink" : 

The pensive afterthoughts of sundown sink 
Over the patient acres given to peace ; 
The homely cries and farmstead noises cease, 

And the worn day relaxes, link by link. 

— 94 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

The character of Canadian landscape in the 
older Eastern provinces, at least, is very 
fully reflected in these sonnets, and it is a 
true Canadian atmosphere of great open 
spaces, cool light, and wide, clear horizons that 
one feels in them; a landscape with no great 
luxury of colour, the varied bloom of its vegeta- 
tion being tempered by the clear, cool lustre 
of a northern sky. As our poet sings : 

Pale, pale the blue, but pure beyond compare. 

The thought, the reflective element, in these 
sonnets is of a less striking and original 
character than the description; generally, in 
fact, it is some moral commonplace or far- 
fetched comment betraying itself clearly as an 
artificial appendage to the picture. That is 
the weak side of the series. One does not 
feel the new soul in it, but only the aesthetic 
vision. The best known sonnet in the se- 
quence is "The Sower." It is neither the finest 
in vision nor the deepest in feeling, but it has 
a perfection of style and clear, picturesque re- 
lief which are most appropriate to the sonnet 
form. The traits are exquisitely select and 
firmly drawn with a fine economy of stroke. 

— 95 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

No doubt it owes something to the fact that it 
is a poetic transcript of Millet's great picture. 
Technically it is not absolutely regular, having 
three rhymes in the octave. Roberts is no 
stickler for conventional correctness here or 
elsewhere. As a rule his rhyme system is the 
pure Petrarchan, but as often as not he dis- 
regards the structural division of the thought 
in the two quatrains, and it is often but slightly 
marked between the octave and the sestet 
except where the latter is reserved for the 
moral lesson or comment. On the whole, 
this sonnet sequence may be considered the 
most important of Roberts' poetic works; it 
represents what is most characteristic in his 
talent — the new impressionistic rendering of 
nature which has taken the place of the old 
romantic colouring as a way of softening 
reality and adjusting it to an ideal demand. 

in 

Roberts has given us few pictures of human 
life in his poetry. It is characteristic both of 
the time and the man that the sonnet sequence 
pictures for us everything belonging to rural 
life except the human figures that are found 
there. The ideal of a pure nature poetry was 

— 96 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

still very strong in the eighties, the influence 
of Cowper and Wordsworth and Shelley and 
even of Keats tending almost to over-stimulate 
the sense of landscape in literature. Even the 
novelist of those days could not refrain from 
larding his story with pages of mostly super- 
fluous description of scenery. It is true, 
Roberts has given us that dainty little idyll of 
"The Solitary Woodsman," a rare example of 
human portraiture, in his poetry, but even 
there he shows much more interest in the 
scenic surroundings and phenomena of nature 
than in the psychology of the individual. 

All day long he wanders wide 
With the grey moss for his guide, 

And his lonely axe-stroke startles 
The expectant forest-side. 

Toward the quiet close of day 
Back to camp he takes his way, 
And about his sober footsteps 
Unafraid the squirrels play. 

On his roof the red leaf falls, 
At his door the bluejay calls, 

And he hears the wood-mice hurry 
Up and down his rough log walls ; 

Hears the laughter of the loon 
Thrill the dying afternoon, — 

Hears the calling of the moose 
Echo to the early moon. 

— 97 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

In his earlier period Roberts wrote a good deal 
of moral and reflective poetry in which he 
expresses in the discreet style of that time 
his attitude towards spiritual problems and 
questions. He then occupied academic posi- 
tions, which perhaps tended to impose a 
cautiously pedagogical tone on his poetry. 
But in any case he was a son of the vicarage, 
bred up and living in an atmosphere where the 
intellectual traditions of the Puritanism both 
of Old and New England were still deeply 
rooted, and he was writing for a Canadian 
public in which all the pieties and reverences of 
the Victorian age were more alive and un- 
challenged than even in the mother country. 
The "Book of the Native," published in 1897, 
is full of little lyrics which are a kind of moral- 
ized nature poetry. Each little lyric has its 
moral and religious lesson. The poet moral- 
izes in the orchard : 

O apple leaves, the mystic light 

All down your dim arcade ! 
Why do your shadows tremble so, 

Half glad and half afraid? 
The air 
Is an unspoken prayer; 

Your eyes look all one way. 
Who is the secret visitor 

Your tremors would betray? 

— 98 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

The Heal-All blooms on its sterile hillocks 
to teach us the simple wisdom of life, the 
daffodil and lily and crocus break from the sod 
rising from the long dark to the ecstasy of a 
new day just as man emerges with a spirit 
aspiring towards the Divine : 

We, of the hedgerows of time, 

We, too, shall divide the sod, 
Emerge to the light, and blossom 

With our hearts held up to God. 

It is a simple strain without much originality 
of thought or form, though it is ornamented 
here and there with some pretty pious fancy 
in the manner of Maria Lowell and the moral- 
izing American lyrists of the sixties. In 
"An Oblation," April, the symbol of Nature's 
awakening power, offers the "great Artificer" 
various tributes, first the spring wind, then 
the northward flight of birds, then "a star 
from the blue fields afar," but the great Arti- 
ficer remains unmoved till she lays the pink- 
lipped bloom of the arbutus at his feet, when 
He stretches out His life-giving hand and 
fills the spheres with sunbeams and summer. 
It is done in pretty little quatrains with the 
smooth, regular cadences of the old lyrical 
school of Longfellow and Whittier, and comes 

— 99 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

like the poetic echo of a past that the world 
was forgetting. 

In the same volume, however, there are 
poems which show the new stress modern 
thought was laying on the poet in his man- 
ner of interpreting life and nature. The 
philosophic conception of nature as a creative 
force representing a primal urge or nisus of the 
universe in which human life was included, 
had already found frequent, if mostly casual 
and incomplete expression, in philosophic poets 
like Shelley and Emerson. Emerson, in 
particular, had accustomed the American 
public to the idea of all life as the effluence of 
one great power, but in him this pantheistic 
form of thought was strongly coloured by the 
philosophy of the great German transcenden- 
talists and their view of reason or spirit as the 
supreme and only real form of existence in the 
universe. His cosmic idealism was therefore 
highly spiritual and could readily ally itself 
with all that was great and helpful in the 
ancient creeds. It could include them all as 
part of one great divine process, and the ora- 
cular mysticism with which he expressed his 
views veiled to a great extent the logical anti- 
nomies and incompatibilities which lay below. 

— 100 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

But the new scientific conception of evolution 
which came with Darwin's work gave a new 
and more concrete basis to the old cosmic 
idealism. It did not necessarily destroy the 
older forms of idealism. The logical conse- 
quences of the theory might be regarded differ- 
ently. Materialistic science might consider it 
proved that all things, all life, were of the same 
essence and had the same destiny, but to many 
it expressed only the fact of a kinship of all 
things in the processes of nature, which yet 
left room for spiritual grades of reality and a 
difference of destiny. The poet does not 
usually examine closely the logical substruc- 
ture of his idealism, but is content to accept 
what he can use of the evolutionary teaching 
while preserving all freedom for his poetic 
intuitions. He can welcome the new doctrine 
as opening larger horizons on the nature of 
life and giving the imagination a new power of 
realizing its unity and harmony, without de- 
stroying either the old spiritualism with which 
Wordsworth interpreted nature, or even the 
deistic sentiment of Thomson and Cowper. 
All these we can see blended in the poetry of 
Roberts and each may be used alone in his 
poetic interpretation of nature. It is a 

— 101 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

conservative eclecticism which is characteristic 
of the time, and particularly of the Anglo- 
Saxon temper and way of thought. 

There is no doubt that in the poems which 
are inspired by this new idea of cosmic unity 
there is a new vigour of feeling and accent. 
The poet's sense of the creative power in life, 
his wonder and admiration, have been deep- 
ened and strengthened; he feels he has at 
last got a new song to sing. In "Kinship" 
there is the recognition of human life as part 
of a great nature process in which its truth and 
meaning are to be found, in which there is 
healing for its fever and fret ; and there is also 
the recognition of an overruling power which 
has so disposed things, expressed in the or- 
dinary language of religious experience, and 
at the same time the poet can pass into apos- 
trophes to that old Greek conception of the 
Mighty Mother, or something very like it, 
although he omits the characteristic epithet. 
It is a blended strain which is characteristic 
enough of Canadian poets like Lampman and 
Carman, when they moralize on what the 
former calls "the dark march of human des- 
tiny." Roberts has not quite the delicacy of 
touch and style of these two, but there is a 

— 102 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

robustness, a firmness of outline in his con- 
ceptions and a sustained vigour of movement 
which are all his own : 

Back to the bewildering vision 

And the borderland of birth; 
Back into the looming wonder, 

The companionship of earth. 

Back into the simple kindred — 
Childlike fingers, childlike eyes, 

Working, waiting, comprehending, 
Now in patience, now surprise. 

There is the usual large vagueness of phrase 
characteristic of Roberts' thought on such 
subjects. But what he means to suggest is 
that there is the guarantee of the universe 
behind the spiritual aspiration of the soul, 
"the caged bright bird, desire" as he calls it 
with picturesque metaphor: his logic may not 
be unchallengeable, but there is a pathos in 
his accents, a power of appeal in the rapid 
kindling flow of utterance which in poetry 
may count for something more than could be 
drawn out into a syllogism. 

Back to wisdom take me, Mother ; 

Comfort me with kindred hands; 
Tell me tales the world's forgetting, 

Till my spirit understands. 



— 103 

R.— 8 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Tell me how some sightless impulse 
Working out a hidden plan, 

God for kin and clay for fellow, 
Wakes to find itself a man. 



How the caged bright bird, desire, 
Which the hands of God deliver, 

Beats aloft to drop unheeded 
At the confines of forever : 

Faints unheeded for a season, 
Then outwings the farthest star, 

To the wisdom and the stillness 
Where thy consummations are. 



"To the wisdom and the stillness where thy 
consummations are," that is the new phrase- 
ology by which the poet seeks to soothe and fill 
the imagination and hide the vagueness of his 
hope — without laying himself too open to 
philosophic criticism. In the "Recessional," 
also, the same cosmic sense of the kinship of 
all things "faring" into the silence at the 
knees of God is expressed with the same pic- 
turesque vigour of phrase and in even more 
solemn and moving accents : and, one might 
add, with the same impetuosity and inspiration 
of utterance which does not always attend very 
closely to the logical relation of the words. 



104 



AN APPRECIATION 

Moth and blossom, blade and bee, 
Worlds must go as well as we 

In the long procession joining 
Mount, and star, and sea. 

Toward the shadowy brink we climb 
Where the round year rolls sublime, 
Rolls and drops, and falls forever 
In the vast of time ; 

Like a plummet plunging deep 
Past the utmost reach of sleep, 

Till remembrance has no longer 
Care to laugh or weep. 

In "Origins," a poem written in very vigorous 
short line iambic couplets, he balances Chris- 
tianity's great revelation of the spirit against 
the stern determinism of evolution. 

Inexorably decreed 
By the ancestral deed, 
The puppets of our sires, 
We work out blind desires. 

In ignorance we stand 
With fate on either hand, 
And question stars and earth 
Of life, and death, and birth. 

But in the urge intense 
And fellowship of sense, 
Suddenly comes a word 
In other ages heard. 
On a great wind our souls 
Are borne to unknown goals, 
And past the bournes of space 
To the unaverted Face. 

— 105 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

Roberts' philosophic poems reflect fairly 
enough the culture of his time. He is ready 
to express in poetic language the obscurity of 
human destiny and the depths of human ig- 
norance, but generally concludes, as in "Earth's 
Complines," with a comforting assurance that 
he has had a vision of the unseen. Of course 
the poet is by nature a highly emotional being, 
and there is often a danger that he is paying us 
with beautiful words and fanciful visions rather 
than with solid readings from experience. 
Only late in the history of our civilization do a 
few of our great ones begin to strive after a 
really critical standard of thought in such 
questions, and many of our poets even yet 
think themselves privileged to deal in beautiful 
dreams, or as Bacon puts it, the "vain opinions, 
flattering hopes, false valuations" without 
which he says the minds of most men would 
be poor, shrunken things. And in Canada 
the best public for poetry still lay in a serious- 
minded middle class which was not likely to 
welcome disturbing criticism of established 
views. Anything that departed much from 
the moral optimism of Fidelis, or the honest 
confidence of McLachlan, in popular virtue 

— 106 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

and the nobility of toil was likely — in lively 
Canadian phrase — to meet a frost. 

It cannot be said that Roberts at this time 
had anywhere broken through into new regions 
of thought, though he had produced some good 
work on traditional lines. His poetry at this 
period is virtually untouched by any spirit 
of revolt, or by the subtle reactions of thought 
which were beginning to influence the modern 
schools of verse, such as the love of ethical 
paradox and the neurotic forms of sensibility 
which distinguished the French symbolists. 
He has not a little of the poet's high endow- 
ment, a lofty and picturesque form of imagina- 
tion, flow and spontaneity of expression and 
free rhythmical movement, but the quality of 
his thought is less impressive, it has not 
that fundamental originality which deepens 
and renews our sense of life. At most he 
gives a poetic expression to ideas which are 
the current stock of the time. His poetry has 
the charm of the impressionistic glance and 
vision, but is weak in the critical interpreta- 
tion of life which our age is conscious of re- 
quiring from the poet, as all the ages have 
required it, though perhaps less consciously. 

— 107 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 
IV 

In 1896 Mr. Roberts resigned his chair at 
King's College, Nova Scotia, and went to 
push his literary fortunes in New York. 
Doubtless many things were urging him to 
this decisive change of atmosphere, from which 
one might anticipate either a new bloom in his 
poetic productivity or a decay, but at any rate 
a change. The reasons for his migration 
were probably not so simple as that which he 
had hinted at years before in one of his 
poems, "The Poet Bidden to Manhattan 
Island": 

You've piped at home where none could pay, 
Till now, I trust your wits are riper. 

Make no delay, but come this way, 
And pipe for them that pay the piper. 

Possibly in a more tranquil age he would have 
been content to go on writing Canadian lyrics 
and idylls and drawing the modest academic 
salary. How many Canadian poets have 
struggled valiantly under much harder condi- 
tions to produce the best that was in them, 
some well-known names even in Canadian 
literary history, Isabella Valancy Crawford in 
the poverty and isolation of a pioneer settle- 
ment, Sangster in the uninspiring work of 

— 108 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

editorship in a small city, Lampman in the dull 
routine of the Post Office Department and 
Wilfred Campbell on the smallest of civil 
service salaries. And he might have reached, 
as some have in their later years, his deepest 
notes, and produced perhaps something great 
enough to take a place not merely in Canadian 
annals but in world literature. But the fever 
of an age which is filled with desire to the lips 
has spread everywhere in these days, and 
Roberts, with the rich and clamorous sensi- 
bilities of the poet, made more demands on 
life perhaps than were compatible with the 
stern askesis which in one form or another 
great art requires of its votaries. "Bntsagen 
sollst du, sollst entsagen" said the greatest 
master of later times, one, too, whose life, 
to the ordinary view, seemed to deny itself 
little. No doubt, also, there was some 
reasonable expectation on the part of the poet 
that the contact with life in a metropolitan 
city, the centre of all great activities on this 
continent, might have a stimulating effect 
on his creative, or at least his productive, 
faculty. At the very least he would have the 
external support of more important profes- 
sional connections, associations and circles. 

— 109 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

What really happened is now biography, part, 
one may say, of the history of Canadian litera- 
ture. The first fruit of his migration was the 
collection which is called "New York Noc- 
turnes," and it manifests a decided change in 
the spirit of his poetry, that had hitherto drawn 
its inspiration from such sacred seats of the 
Muses as Rydal Mount and Concord and re- 
flected on the whole the quiet influences of 
Canadian rural life and scenes. But now it 
has begun to gravitate in another direction, 
towards that "poetry of the city" which Arthur 
Symons and other writers of the new school 
were now declaring to be the true form of 
modern poetry. It is truly enough a demo- 
cratic kind of poetry, a poetry of the common 
crowd, of the masses of humanity that make up 
the life and movement of a great city, with 
what the poet can divine of their instinctive 
impulses, of their casual betrayals of joy or 
grief, of their secret quests or hopes; a poetry 
of crowded streets and squares, of the roar 
and rattle of vehicles, of the chimes of city 
bells, of the thunder of the passing train. 
There is a kind of poetry of nature in it too, 
nature transformed to stone in the massive 
lines of high buildings, spires, columns and 

— no — 



AN APPRECIATION 

embankments forming alliances with sky and 
atmosphere, with morning sunshine or twilight 
as variedly suggestive in aspect as the land- 
scape of woods and meadows. Henley has 
done it all admirably in his "London Volun- 
taries," in just that soft, suggestive style of 
impressionistic picture which is required to 
soften the rough edges and intractable contours 
of such a subject. 

New York is certainly not behind London in 
the wealth of material it offers to the impres- 
sionist artist — from Riverside to Battery 
Point the endless panorama of its great streets 
and squares, imposing public buildings and 
gigantic sky-scrapers, the varied local colour 
of its avenues or its great hotels and the people 
you meet in them, the subway crowds, the busy 
river traffic, the wonderful sky-line, all that 
furnishes by day or night every variety of 
effect and all the changing lights and shadows 
of life a poet could wish to choose from. It is 
rather curious that Roberts makes so little 
use of it all. The impressionistic power of 
vision which could picture so well the ap- 
proach of evening's quiet on the farmstead, 
or the autumnal melancholy of a September 
afternoon in the woods, seems to fail him 

— ill — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

entirely in the great city. Is it the first touch 
of decay in the idealizing power, of spiritual 
weariness in that vigorous and enterprising 
talent? There is, it is true, a picture of the 
Elevated Railway at night, very brief and with 
light, commonplace traits : 

The dark above is sown with stars. 

The humming dark below 
With sparkle of ten thousand lamps 

In endless row on row. 

Tall shadow towers with glimmering lights 

Stand sinister and grim 
Where upper deep and lower deep 

Come darkly rim to rim. 

And there are rather uninspired lines on the 
hurrying crowds at twilight on Sixth Avenue, 
and the deserted aspect of a down-town street 
at night, but it is all evidently without much 
heart, a perfunctory external picture of the 
most obvious elements in the scene. In fact, 
all that life and movement of the great city 
excites but little interest in him. It is but the 
environment for him of "Me and Thee," of 
passionate lyrics in the style of Rossetti and 
the erotic school. 

I walk the city square with thee. 

The night is loud ; the pavements roar. 
Their eddying mirth and misery 
Encircle thee and me. 

— 112 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

The street is full of lights and cries. 

The crowd but brings thee close to me. 
I only hear thy low replies; 
I only see thine eyes. 

That is an epitome of the "New York Noc- 
turnes." It is a change of tone which amounts 
to a transformation of his poetic ideals. The 
old influences which had nourished his poetic 
vein, Wordsworth's high cult of nature, 
Emerson's transcendental spiritualism, the 
pure sestheticism of Keats, have given place 
to the erotic interest of Rossetti's "House of 
Life." The range of notes is much the same, 
varying from ecstatic self-abandonment to 
passionate raptures on her hair or the perfec- 
tion of her kiss. At times, too, there is a 
mystical idealism which refines the passion 
into a dreamy, half-religious cult of Eros. In 
the "Nocturne of Consecration," for example, 
many tones mingle and some of them are not 
without depth in a lore that is unfathomable : 

Said the wise earth— 
"She is not all my child, 
But the wild spirit that rules her heart-beats wild 
Is of diviner birth 

And kin to the unknown light beyond my ken. 
All I can give to her have I not given? 
Strength to be glad, to suffer, and to know; 
The sorcery that subdues the souls of men; 
The beauty that is as the shadow of heaven; 

— 113 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

The hunger of love 

And unspeakable joy thereof. 

And these are dear to her because of you. 

You need no word of mine to make you wise 

Who worship at her eyes 

And find there life and love forever new!" 

A later volume, "The Book of the Rose," 
continues the same strain in even more pas- 
sionate tones. At times you feel the fierce, hot 
breath of Swinburne and taste the bitter savour 
of his sentiment, with a faint odour also from 
the poison-flowers of Baudelaire. The Rose 
asks, "Why am I sad?" that is, what is the 
meaning of this infinite sadness at the heart of 
Desire? And a Wind older than Time replies : 

The cries of a thousand lovers, 

A thousand slain, 

The tears of all the forgotten 

Who kissed in vain, 

And the journeying years that have vanished 

Have left on you 

The witness, each, of its pain, 

Ancient, yet new. 

Your wild soul is thronged 

With the phantoms of joy unfulfilled 

That beauty hath wronged ; 

With the pangs of all secret betrayals, 

The ghosts of desire, 

The bite of old flame, and the chill 

Of the ashes of fire. 

There is no need to ask from whence that 

— 114 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

style draws its inspiration. The kinship to 
Swinburne's "Faustine" is evident. Such 
imitative strains are perhaps never more than 
half sincere, that is, they are not an original 
crystallization of the poet's own thought with 
the unmistakable imprint of individual ex- 
perience, but only a form which harmonizes 
sufficiently with the present mood or situation 
of the poet to be used in expressing it. This 
readiness to re-echo another's tone is a 
weakness in Roberts. In this very volume, 
filled as it is with subtle perfumes from the 
erotic poetry of Rossetti and Swinburne, there 
is an excellent imitation, in "The Stranded 
Ship," of Kipling's breezy manner and fine 
rendering of moving incident and adventure. 

There are some fine stanzas, undoubtedly, 
in "New York Nocturnes" and the poetry of 
this later period, and it is all interesting enough 
as showing what the change of situation did to 
liberate a form of sentiment in the poet that 
had before been silent in the cooler atmosphere 
of the small Canadian city and Canadian rural 
scenes. But it may be doubted if his new 
erotic poetry has added anything really valu- 
able to the poetic achievement of Roberts. 
For one thing it is little more than a personal 

— 115 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

cry which does not touch the universal signi- 
ficance of the subject. That is, it is the older 
type of erotic poetry, all the keys of which had 
already been sounded to the full in Rossetti 
and Swinburne. What modern erotic poetry 
may do to illumine the nature of life you may 
see in the great masters, in Browning, or the 
Swedish Froding, or the subtle Meredith, 
where the poet descends through new depths 
of realism to find new forms of the eternal 
ideal. These masters felt the need of the 
time to express frankly the claims of nature, 
and yet so as to keep alive the higher flame of 
the spirit and prevent it from sinking into the 
dust. 

But the candour of a world-poetry was 
hardly to be expected in the case of Roberts. 
It is not that America or Canada are wanting 
in sex-tragedies, open and concealed, in 
revolts, in passionate defiances of the old 
barriers and limits. I see the tide rising 
steadily that way in the sex that is most under 
the pressure of those limits, and in circles that 
used to be untouched. But a young country 
with a population of a mixed strain and still 
at the stage of forming social standards and 
traditions for itself, instinctively discourages 

— 116 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

its intellectual leadership from throwing the 
gates wide open for social discussion. Wide- 
spread as the revolt and questioning may be, 
the national ethic refuses to acknowledge 
them in the literature and art that are supposed 
to reflect its life. And this is partly why our 
poet, who is not a turner up of new layers in 
any case, does not get much farther than some 
sweet honeysuckle verse on the light touch 
of her hand or the mystical perfection of her 
kiss. 

The culture of a nation must be old and 
well established before it can breed such fine 
forms of outbreak as Anatole France, or Arnold 
Bennett, or Sheila Kaye-Smith. Even in the 
great United States, with all its political and 
social audacities, you can see how instinctively 
certain limits are kept in its higher literature 
and art. The significant forms of outbreak 
there are not in the line of "La Rotisserie de 
la reine Pedauque" or Strindberg's "Froken 
Julia," but the gigantic barbaric yawp of Whit- 
man's "Leaves of Grass" and the polyphonic 
prose of Amy Lowell — these are the forms in 
which the American writer "breaks through" ; 
safely enough, for they are artistically null. 

— 117 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 



Roberts has a true gift for verse. In 
particular his command of the older types of 
rhythm is assured and whatever he writes in 
them is never wanting in truth and vigour of ac- 
cent and in a natural fluidity of movement. He 
began with the great classical forms of verse, 
with the rich rhymes and melodious cadences 
of Spenser and Keats, a style of verse which 
reaches its highest form in the powerful hand- 
ling of the ten-line stanza of the "Ave," The 
quieter movement of the sonnet also suits him ; 
in his hands it has a uniformly pensive, melodi- 
ous character and a classical smoothness and 
elevation of style; perhaps too uniformly; a 
touch of Miltonic emphasis, the resonant moral 
note of Wordsworth, or the sharp breaks with 
which the more modern school accentuates its 
sentiment might be an agreeable variation. 
In his lighter lyrics also you see his native 
tunefulness in a fair variety of notes, ranging 
from the simplicity of style in little snatches 
of song like "On the Creek," "Aylesford Lake," 
"Birch and Paddle," "A Song of Cheer," 
etc., to the more elaborate strophic form of the 
lyric which Tennyson made popular. 

— 118 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

AYLESFORD LAKE 

All night long the light is lying 
Silvery on the birches sighing; 
All night long the loons are crying 
Sweetly over Aylesford Lake. 

Soon my spirit grows serener, 
Hearing saner, vision keener. 
In the night's benign demeanour 
Peace and Wisdom venture nigh. 

Perhaps there is at times something a little 
too determined in his cadences, a rhetorical 
hardness of accent which makes the metrical 
mould too much felt. He is not of the most 
modern school in this respect. Even his 
popular lilts and folk-songs, such as "The Barn- 
Yard's Southerly Corner" and "The Stack 
Behind the Barn," suffer a little from the hard 
will which one feels is urging the line. But 
when the subject requires elevation of feeling 
and thought, as in the "Recessional" or "Kin- 
ship," it carries the emphasis of his accent 
naturally enough. 

In his "New York Nocturnes" there is some 
experimenting with freer modern forms of 
verse. The "Nocturne of Spiritual Love" 
has a combination of a long, highly cadenced 
Alexandrine with a short line of two feet, 
which carries the feeling very happily. As a 

— 119- 
R.— 9 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

rule, Roberts' verse has little of that refined 
modern facture which has followed the Sym- 
bolistic movement, the cunning forms of 
broken and lowered rhythm, the sharp arrests, 
the scientific use of choriambic and other 
double classical feet, just as he has little 
tendency to the later novelties in theme and 
treatment. In all this he has remained on the 
grand highway of the older schools. In the 
"Nocturne of Consecration," however, we have 
a fair example of his irregular verse. It is 
written in an apparent Pindaric variety of 
metre with irregular rhymes, but is really a 
decasyllabic measure concealed by occasional 
half-lines and the manner of printing it. The 
free strophic arrangement and variety of 
cadences are unusual in Roberts, but it reads 
very well and expresses effectively enough the 
feeling of the poem, a sort of meditative mono- 
tone varied by the ecstatic utterance of a 
lover. 

On the whole, then, it is the nature 
poetry of Roberts, Canadian in origin and 
feeling, that remains his most important con- 
tribution to literature. The migration to 
New York did little for him as a poet and per- 
haps he rather left behind him amongst the 

— 120 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

quiet woodlands and coast reaches of New 
Brunswick that higher will and finer orienta- 
tion of the spirit which one feels in his earlier 
work. At any rate, in these later years we 
have little that even essays to be a serious con- 
tribution to higher literature ; little more indeed 
than fugitive verses to fill a corner in a maga- 
zine. What remains of his career might be 
described with some truth in the words of a 
well-known French verse : 

Un poete mortjeune, a qui Vhomme survit. 

But, though his poetic vein sank in the stress 
of New York life, literary work was that by 
which he lived, and, turning to prose with the 
native energy of the Canadian, he became quite 
a valiant craftsman in that field. In particular, 
his stories of wild-animal life had a circulation 
which at one time was, I have heard, highly 
lucrative. His trained eye for scenery was, 
of course, a material help in such work and he 
shows what seems to be a competent know- 
ledge of the habitats and ways of wild animals 
as well as a poet's sympathetic divination of 
their instincts and motives. Only when one 
compares such tales with the work of masters 
of natural history like Burroughs and Jefferies 

— 121 — 



CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 

there is of course a difference. Roberts must 
popularize his tale with a thread of romance, 
which gives it the appearance of a fake history, 
and the reader feels that the course of events 
is as surely determined by this necessity as the 
fate of the villain in a magazine romance. In 
such a story there is likely to be a less careful 
observation of the trivial, yet characteristic, 
habits, of the unforeseen, irrational, yet 
natural, happenings which make animal life 
interesting and give so much of their charm 
to the pages of the great naturalists. It is a 
kind of work which easily falls into lower 
popular forms of the romantic, though there 
are famous examples in Tolstoi, Bjornson, 
Kipling and other writers, of what literary art 
can do to make it classical by charm of style 
and symbolistic depth of treatment. Roberts' 
marked tendency towards a traditional roman- 
tic treatment of his subject seems always to 
stand in the way of the sterner effort to make a 
new reality emerge. You see it also in his 
novel, "The Heart that Knows." There are 
fine descriptive pages in it and the local 
colour of life in the small seaport town is very 
well given in some scenes, but, as a whole, the 
— 122 — 



AN APPRECIATION 

story depends too much on a coarsely romantic 
and sensational series of events. 

It comes to this, that while Roberts' work 
shows great natural gifts for literature, and 
perhaps the richest and most robust endowment 
amongst Canadian poets, it belongs too much 
to the region of artistic experiment and gives 
less evidence of an effort to get new and candid 
readings from his experience than might at 
one time have been expected from him. The 
frequency of the echoes and reminiscences 
one finds in it and the heterogeneous variety 
of notes shows lack of ethical centre and 
unity. But even in its weaknesses it is an 
interesting reflection of a time which is living 
in the embarrassment of half-beliefs and in- 
definite compromises, and in traditions which 
it can neither fully accept nor discard. And 
there will always remain to his credit those 
finished pictures of Canadian rural scenes, of 
the marshes of Tantramar and the coast of 

New Brunswick. 

JAMES CAPPON. 



123 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



PART I.— POETICAL WORKS 

ORION, AND OTHER POEMS 

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1880. Diminutive 
4to., green (also blue, brown and black) cloth, pp. 113 (-1). 

Mr. Roberts' first book, issued when he was in his twen- 
tieth year, and dedicated: "To Rev. G. Goodridge Roberts, 
M.A., my father and dearest friend." 

LATER POEMS 

(Fredericton, N.B., 1881). 8vo., pp. 8. 
Contains two poems, "A Farewell" and "From Fire," 
which have never been reprinted. 

LATER POEMS 

(Fredericton, N.B.). For private circulation. Jas. H. 
Crockett, Printer (1882). Diminutive 4to., printed wrap- 
pers, pp. 13. 

Contains poem, "In the Loft," which has never been re- 
printed. 

IN DIVERS TONES 

Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. (1886). Wide post 8vo., de- 
corated dark blue (also buff) cloth, pp. viii-134. 

Issued also by Dawson Bros., Montreal, 1887, with new 
title-page and binding (decorated brown cloth). 

AUTOCHTHON 

(Windsor, N.S.). Printed for private circulation only 
(1889). 4to., pp. 4. Reprinted in "Songs of the Common 
Day" (London, 1893). 

AVE: An Ode for the Centenary of the Birth of 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, August 4, 1792. 

Toronto: Williamson Book Company, 1892. Crown 4to., 
blue-grey (also terra cotta) paper boards (also parchment), 
pp. 27. Printed on one side of page only. 

Edition: 250 copies, according to "Prefatory Note" to 
"Songs of the Common Day" (London, 1893), in which the 
Ode is reprinted. Verse from Bliss Carman's "The White 
Gull" on leaf before title, being here first published in book 
form. 

— 127 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

SONGS OF THE COMMON DAY, and AVE: An 
Ode for the Shelley Centenary 

London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1893. Crown 8vo., 
blue cloth, pp. xi-126, with 24 pp. advertisements at end. 

Dedicated to Bliss Carman. "Prefatory Note" dated: 
"Kingscroft, Windsor, N.S., May, 1893." 

Issued also with imprint of William Briggs, Toronto: 
C. W. Coates, Montreal, and S. F. Huestis, Halifax, 1893, 
but without advertisements at end. 

NINETY-SIX: A Calendar for MDCCCXCVL With 
Verses by Charles G. D. Roberts and Bliss 
Carman, and Wayside Notes of Wander- 
ings over Canadian Roads by members of 
the Toronto Art Students* League 

(Toronto, 1896). Crown 4to., decorated wrappers, pp. 23 
(unnumbered). Contains "In Bohemia," by Roberts, never 
reprinted. 

1 THE BOOK OF THE NATIVE 

Boston, New York, London: Lamson, Wolfe & Co.; 
Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Limited, MDCCCXCVI. 
Foolscap 8vo., dark blue cloth, pp. 156. 

NEW YORK NOCTURNES and Other Poems 

Boston, New York and London: Lamson, Wolfe & Co., 
MDCCCXCVIII. Foolscap 8vo., decorated green cloth, 
pp. 84. 

POEMS 

New York, Boston, Chicago: Silver, Burdett & Co. 
(1901). Crown 8vo., dark blue cloth, pp. xii-222. Frontis- 
piece portrait, with facsimile autograph signature. Pre- 
fatory note: "Of all my verse written before the end of 1898 
this collection contains everything that I care to preserve." 

Issued also with imprint of Archibald Constable, London, 
1901. 

THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1903. Narrow crown 8vo., 
decorated dark blue cloth (also flexible leather), pp. vi-83. 
Frontispiece in color. 

POEMS 

New Complete Edition, including for the first time the 
poems hitherto published separately in "The Book of the 
Rose." 

— 128 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MCMVII. 8vo., red cloth, pp. 
xiii-257. Frontispiece (tipped-in) portrait. 

Issued also with imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., Limited, 
Toronto, 1907. 

NEW POEMS 

London: Constable & Co., Limited, 1919. Foolscap 8vo., 
green paper boards, paper title-label on face, pp. 44. 

PART II.— PROSE WORKS: FICTION 

THE CANADIANS OF OLD 

By Philippe Aubert de Gaspe. Translated by Charles 
G, D. Roberts. 

New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1890. Post 8vo., dark 
blue cloth (also printed brown paper wrappers), pp. 287. 
Issued in Appleton's "Town and Country Library." 

Issued also with imprint of Hart & Co., Toronto, with new 
title-page (with added sub-title "An Historical Romance") 
dated 1891, and in yellow printed paper wrappers. 

THE RAID FROM BEAUSEJOUR, and HOW THE 
CARTER BOYS LIFTED THE MORT- 
GAGE: Two Stories of Acadie 

New York: Hunt & Eaton; Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts, 
1894. Post 8vo., decorated green cloth, pp. 230. Frontis- 
piece and two other full-page illustrations. 

There was a second issue in grey-blue cloth, with design 
in black, and name: "Eaton & Mains" on back. 

REUBE DARE'S SHAD BOAT: A Tale of the Tide 
Country 

New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1895. Crown 8vo., cloth, pp. 
125. Frontispiece illustration. 

THE FORGE IN THE FOREST 

Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, 
Seigneur de Briart; and how he crossed the Black Abbe; and 
of his Adventures in a strange fellowship. 

Boston, New York and London: Lamson, Wolfe & Co.; 
Toronto: William Briggs, MDCCCXCVI. Crown 8vo., de- 
corated green cloth, pp. 312. Frontispiece and six other 
full-page illustrations (by Henry Sandham), with map. 

Issued also with the imprint of William Briggs, Toronto; 
C. W. Coates, Montreal, and S. F. Huestis, Halifax, undated, 
but with notice of copyright 1897, and in new binding. 

— 129 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

AROUND THE CAMP FIRE 

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. (1896). Wide crown 
8vo., decorated green cloth, pp. iv-349. Frontispiece and 
14 other full-page illustrations by Charles Copland. 

Issued also with the imprint of William Briggs, Toronto; 
C. W. Coates, Montreal, and S. F. Huestis, Halifax, 1896, 
in new binding. 

A SISTER TO EVANGELINE 

Being the Story of Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went 
into exile with the villagers of Grand Pre. 

Boston, New York, London: Lamson, Wolfe & Co., 
MDCCCXCVni. Crown 8vo., dark blue cloth, pp. viii-289. 
Frontispiece map. 

Issued also with the imprint of George Morang & Co., 
Toronto, 1899. 

BY THE MARSHES OF MINAS 

Boston, New York, Chicago: Silver, Burdett & Co. (1900). 
Crown 8vo, dark red cloth, pp. v-285. Frontispiece illus- 
tration. 

Issued also with the imprint of William Briggs, Toronto, 
1900. 

THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD 

New York, Boston, Chicago: Silver, Burdett & Co. (1900). 
Crown 8vo., dark green cloth, pp. viii-276. Frontispiece and 
five other full-page illustrations by James L. Weston. 

Issued also with the imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., 
Toronto, 1901, and likewise with new title-page and 
binding, by Methuen & Co., London, 1902. 

BARBARA LADD 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1902. Crown 8vo., red cloth, 
PP. 377' Frontispiece and three other full-page illustrations 
by Frank Ver Beck. 

Issued also with the imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., 
Toronto, 1902, in new binding, and likewise with the imprint 
of Constable & Co., London, 1902, in new binding. 

THE PRISONER OF MADEMOISELLE DE BIEN- 
COURT 

Philadelphia: Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, November, 
1904. 8vo., printed paper wrappers. 

The first publication of the complete story. 

— 130 — 






BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE PRISONER OF MADEMOISELLE: A Love 
Story 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1904. Crown 8vo., decorated 
blue cloth, silhouette portrait on face, pp. vi-265. Frontis- 
piece illustration by Frank T. Merrill. 

Issued also by the Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 1904, with 
new title-page (omitting sub-title: "A Love Story") and with 
lettering on face in gilt instead of white, as in Boston edition; 
also by Constable & Co., London, 1904, with new title-page 
and binding. 

CAMERON OF LOCHIEL 

By Philippe de Gaspe. Translated by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1905. Crown 8vo., red cloth, 
pp. vi-287. Frontispiece illustration in color by H. C. 
Edwards. 

New edition of "The Canadians of Old" (New York, 
1890), printed from the original plates, with new preface 
(2 pp.). 

x THE CRUISE OF THE YACHT "DIDO": A Tale 
of the Tide Country 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1906. Post 8vo., decorated 
dark blue cloth, pp. vii-145. Frontispiece and six other 
full-page illustrations. 

New edition of "Reube Dare's Shad Boat" (Boston, 
1895). Issued in "Cosy Corner Series." 

Issued also with imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 
1906. 

THE HEART THAT KNOWS 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCVI. Crown 8vo., 
crimson cloth, pp. viii-378. 

Issued also with imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 
1906. 

i THE YOUNG ACADIAN: or The Raid from Beause- 
jour 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1907. Post 8vo., decorated 
buff cloth, pp. 139. Frontispiece and five other full-page 
illustrations by Blanche McManus. 

New edition of "The Raid from Beausejour" (New York, 
1894), printed from the original plates, with new illustra- 
tions. Issued in "Cosy Corner Series." 

« IN THE DEEP OF THE SNOW 

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. (1907). Narrow 
post 8vo., decorated grey-green cloth, pp. 78. Frontispiece 
and three other full-page illustrations by Denman Fink. 

— 131 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE BACKWOODSMEN 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Locke & Co. 
(1909). Crown 8vo., cloth, illustrated end papers, pp. 317. 
Frontispiece and nineteen other full-page illustrations. 

THE BACKWOODSMEN 

New York: The Macmillan Co. (1909). Crown 8vo., 
illustrated cloth, pp. vii-269. Frontispiece and five other 
full-page illustrations. 

THE RED OXEN OF BONVAL 

New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1909. Narrow 48010., 
decorated paper wrappers, decorated title-page, pp. 71. 

A BALKAN PRINCE 

London: Everett & Co., 1913. Crown 8vo., red cloth, pp. 
vii-248. Frontispiece illustration. 

THE LEDGE ON BALD FACE 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Locke & Co., 
Ltd., 1918. Crown 8vo., illustrated cloth, illustrated end 
papers, pp. 255. Frontispiece and eleven other illustrations. 
By Paul Bransom and others. 

IN THE MORNING OF TIME 

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. (1922). Post 8vo., 
blue cloth, pp. vii-311. 

IN THE MORNING OF TIME 

London and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons, Limited. 
MCMXXIII. Crown 8vo., blue-green buckram, pp. vii-320. 
Frontispiece and five other full-page illustrations. Contains 
"Author's Note," dated London, August, 1923- 

Issued also with imprint of McClelland & Stewart, 
Toronto, in new binding. 

LOVERS IN ACADIA 

London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1924. Crown 8vo., cloth, 
pp. 288. 

PART III.— ANIMAL STORIES 
EARTH'S ENIGMAS: A Volume of Stories 

Boston and New York: Lamson, Wolfe & Co., 1896. 
Thick foolscap 8vo., illustrated, yellow buckram, decorated 
title-page, pp. v-291. 

Mr. Roberts' first volume of animal stories. 

— 132 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE KINDRED OF THE WILD : A Book of Animal 
LIFE 

Boston : L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCII. Wide crown 8vo., 
olive-green cloth, pp. 374. Frontispiece and other full-page 
and smaller illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 

Issued also with imprint of Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 

1902, and likewise with that of Duckworth & Co., London, 

1903, the latter in new binding. 

EARTHS ENIGMAS 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1903. Crown 8vo., illustrated 
dark grey paper boards pp. ix-285. Frontispiece and nine 
other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 

New edition, with "Prefatory Note" (2 pp.), with three 
stories added and three dropped. 

Issued also with imprint of the Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, 
1903. 

THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS: A Book of 
Animal Life 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCIV. Wide crown 
8vo., illustrated olive-green cloth, illustrated end papers, 
pp. xv-361. Frontispiece and other full-page and smaller 
illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 

Issued also with imprint of Duckworth & Co., London, 

1904, in new binding. 

THE WATCHERS OF THE CAMP-FIRE 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCV. Thin crown 8vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 49. Frontispiece and four 
other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 

Reprinted from "The Kindred of the Wild" (Boston, 1902). 

RED FOX 

The Story of his Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak 
Wilds and of His Final Triumph over the Enemies of His 
Kind. Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCV. Wide 8vo., 
illustrated dark-green cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. xv-i- 
340. Frontispiece in color and many other full-page 
illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 

Issued also with imprint of Duckworth & Co., London, 

1905, in new binding. 

THE HAUNTERS OF THE PINE GLOOM 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCV. Thin crown 8vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 61. Frontispiece and other 
full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. Re- 
printed from "The Kindred of the Wild" (Boston, 1902). 

— 133 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE LORD OF THE AIR 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCV. Thin crown 8vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 59. Frontispiece and four 
other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 
Reprinted from "The Kindred of the Wild" (Boston, 1902). 

THE KING OF THE MAMOZEKEL 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCV. Thin crown 8vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 84. Frontispiece and six 
other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 
Reprinted from "The Kindred of the Wild" (Boston, 1902). 

THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE SYCAMORE 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCVI. Thin crown 8vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 58. Frontispiece and 
three other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston 
Bull. Reprinted from "The Watchers of the Trails" (Boston, 
1904). 

THE RETURN TO THE TRAILS 

Boston : L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCVI. Thin crown 8 vo., 
illustrated grey cloth boards, pp. 50. Frontispiece and two 
other full-page illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. 
Reprinted from "The Watchers of the Trails" (Boston, 1904). 

THE HAUNTERS OF THE SILENCES: A Book of 
Animal Life 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCVII. Wide crown 
8vo., illustrated olive-green cloth, illustrated end-papers, 
pp. xiv-316. Frontispiece and other full-page illustrations in 
color and black and white, with smaller illustrations by 
Charles Livingston Bull. 

Issued also with imprint of the Montreal News Co., 
Montreal, 1907, and likewise with the imprint of Duck- 
worth & Co., London, 1913, in new binding. 

THE HOUSE IN THE WATER 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., MDCCCCVIII. Crown 8vo., 
illustrated maroon cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. viii-301. 
Frontispiece in color and seventeen other full-page illustra- 
tions, with smaller illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull 
and Frank Vining Smith. 

THE HOUSE IN THE WATER 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
Ltd. (1909). Crown 8vo., illustrated dark blue cloth, illus- 
trated end-papers, pp. 323. Frontispiece in colour and 
seventeen other full-page illustrations, with smaller illus- 
trations by Charles Livingston Bull and Frank Vining Smith. 

— 134 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 
KINGS IN EXILE 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
Ltd. (1909). Crown 8vo., illustrated green cloth, illustrated 
end-papers, pp. 305. Frontispiece and eleven other full- 
page illustrations by Paul Bransom, C. L. Bull, etc. 

KINGS IN EXILE 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1910. Crown 8vo., il- 
lustrated olive-green cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. vii- 
299. Frontispiece and eleven other full-page illustrations 
by Paul Bransom, C. L. Bull, etc. 

MORE KINDRED OF THE WILD 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
191 1. Crown 8vo., illustrated grey cloth, illustrated end- 
papers, pp. 264. Frontispiece and seven other full-page 
illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

MORE KINDRED OF THE WILD 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 191 1. Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. . Frontis- 
piece and seven other full-page illustrations by Paul 
Bransom. 

NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
Ltd. (191 1). Crown 8vo., illustrated red cloth, illustrated 
end-papers, pp. 279. Frontispiece and twelve other full-page 
illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 191 1. Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated green cloth, pp. ix-266. Frontispiece and twelve other 
full-page illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

THEY WHO WALK IN THE WILD 

London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1924. Large crown 8vo., 
illustrated cloth, pp. 290. Illustrated by Charles Living- 
ston Bull. 

THEY THAT WALK IN THE WILD 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1924. Crown 8vo., 
illustrated blue cloth, pp. v-212. 

— 135 — 
R.— 10 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BABES OF THE WILD 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co. 
Ltd., 1012. Crown 8vo., illustrated cloth, illustrated end- 
papers, pp. . Frontispiece in colour and thirty-two 
other full-page illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

THE FEET OF THE FURTIVE 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
Ltd., IQ12. Crown 8vo., illustrated grey cloth, illustrated 
end-papers, pp. 277. Frontispiece and seven other full- 
page illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

CHILDREN OF THE WILD 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1913. Illustrated cloth, 
illustrated end-papers, pp. 300. Frontispiece in colour and 
thirty-two full-page illustrations by Paul Bransom. Same 
book as "Babes of the Wild" (London, 1912), with altered 
title. 

THE FEET OF THE FURTIVE 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1013. Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated green cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. 384. Frontis- 
piece and seven other full-page illustrations by Paul 
Bransom. 

HOOF AND CLAW 

London, Melbourne and Toronto: Ward, Lock & Co., 
Ltd., 1913. Crown 8vo., illustrated green cloth, illustrated 
end-papers, pp. 267. Frontispiece and seven other full-page 
illustrations by Paul Bransom. 

HOOF AND CLAW 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1914- Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated green cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. vii-291. 
Frontispiece and seven other full-page illustrations by Paul 
Bransom. 

THE SECRET TRAILS 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1916. Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated green cloth, illustrated end-papers, pp. vii-212. 
Frontispiece and seven other full-page illustrations. 

JIM: The Story of a Backwoods Police Dog 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1919. Crown 8vo., illus- 
trated light brown cloth, pp. 216. 

— 136 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

WISDOM OF THE WILDERNESS 

London and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.; New 
York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1922. Wide 8vo., cloth, pp. v-i- 
218. Frontispiece and five other full-page illustrations. 

WISDOM OF THE WILDERNESS 

New York: The Macmillan Co., 1923. Post 8vo., dark- 
green buckram, pp. vi-184. 

SOME ANIMAL STORIES 

London and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York: 
E. P. Dutton & Co. (1921). Diminutive 4 to., red cloth, 
pp. 125. Frontispiece woodcut portrait. A selection issued 
in "The King's Treasuries of Literature" Series. 

MORE ANIMAL STORIES 

London and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York: 
E. P. Dutton & Co. (1922). Diminutive 4to., red cloth, 
pp. 127. Frontispiece woodcut portrait. A selection issued 
in "King's Treasuries of Literature" Series. 



PART IV.— HISTORY, DESCRIPTION AND TRAVEL 
THE CANADIAN GUIDE-BOOK 

The Tourist's and Sportsman's Guide to Eastern Canada 
and Newfoundland. With an Appendix giving fish and game 
laws (etc.). With map and many illustrations. 

New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1891. Post 8vo., flexible 
decorated red cloth, pp. 270. Maps, steel engravings and 
photogravures. 

Issued also by Heinemann, London, with his name at 
foot of back, the book being otherwise as above. 

Revised and enlarged editions issued in 1892, 1894, 1895, 
1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899. 

THE LAND OF EVANGELINE AND THE GATE- 
WAYS THITHER 

With many illustrations and appendices for Sportsman 
and Tourist. 

Kentville, N.S. : Dominion Atlantic Railway (1895) . Nar- 
row post 8vo., illustrated paper wrappers, pp. v-92. Illus- 
trations from photographs. 

— 137 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A HISTORY OF CANADA 

Boston, New York, London: Lamson, Wolfe & Co., 1897. 
8vo., maroon cloth, pp. xi-493. Folding maps. Dedicated 
to Edmund Clarence Stedman. 

Issued also with added imprint of G. N. Morang, Toronto, 
1897. * 

Revised editions issued in 1898, 1904, 1909. 

DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS 

London and Edinburgh: W. R. Chambers, Limited; 
Philadelphia, Detroit and Toronto: The Linscott Publishing 
Co., 1902. 8vo., cloth, pp. xvii-529. Frontispiece and 
other portraits. Vol. XIV of "Nineteenth Century Series: 
The Story of Human Progress and the Events of the Cen- 
tury." 

Reissued in 1905 with imprint; W. R. Chambers, Limited, 
London and Edinburgh, and Modern Progress Publishing 
Co., Philadelphia and Toronto. 

CANADA IN FLANDERS. Vol. Ill 

With a preface by Lord Beaverbrook. 

London, New York, Toronto: Hodder & Stoughton, 
MCMXVIII. Post 8vo., red cloth, pp. xiv-144. Map 
end-papers. 



PART V.— BOOKS EDITED OR CONTAINING IN- 
TRODUCTIONS BY C. G. D. ROBERTS. 

POEMS OF WILD LIFE: An Anthology 

Selected and edited with an Introduction, by Charles 
G. D. Roberts, M.A. 

London: Walter Scott; Toronto: W. J. Gage & Co., 1888. 
Diminutive 4to., blue cloth, paper title-label (also decorated 
brown cloth), pp. xviii-238. 

HALIBURTON: The Man and the Writer 

A Study. By F. Blake Crofton, B.A. (With Introduction 
by Charles G. D. Roberts.) 

Printed for The Haliburton by J. J. Anslow, Windsor, 
N.S., January, 1889. Crown 8vo., printed brown paper 
wrappers, pp. 73 (-3). "Proceedings of The Haliburton 
of the University of King's College," No. 1. 

— 138 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

WALDEN : or Life in the Woods 

By Henry D. Thoreau. With an Introduction by Charles 
G. D. Roberts. 

New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. (1899). 48mo., decorated 
crimson cloth (also red leather,) pp. xvi-350. Portrait 
frontispiece. 

NORTHLAND LYRICS 

By William Carman Roberts, Theodore Roberts and 
Elizabeth Roberts Macdonald. Selected and arranged, 
with a Prologue (in verse) by Charles G. D. Roberts, and an 
Epilogue by Bliss Carman. 

Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1899. Crown 4to., red 
buckram, pp. vii- 12-86. 

ALASTOR 

By Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. 

Boston: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1902. Crown 8vo., decora- 
ted paper boards, pp. 

ADONAIS 

By Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Charles G. D. 
Roberts. 

Boston: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1902. Crown 8vo., 
decorated paper boards, pp. 

SAPPHO : One Hundred Lyrics 

By Bliss Carman. With an Introduction by Charles G. 
D. Roberts. 

Boston: L. C. Page & Co., 1904. Wide royal 8vo., light 
green paper boards, white parchment back, pp. xx-130. 
Edition: 500 copies (numbered). The last 100 copies (un- 
numbered) were issued with imprint of the Copp, Clark 
Co., Toronto, 1905, in dark green cloth. 



PART VI.— BOOKS CONTAINING CONTRIBUTIONS 
BY MR. ROBERTS— POETRY. 

SEPTEMBER (An Anthology) 

Edited by Oscar Fay Adams. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. 
(1886). Wide foolscap 8vo., white cloth, yellow linen back, 
pp. xxvi-158. "Through the Year with the Poets" series. 
Contains "In September," by Charles G. D. Roberts, here 
first published in regular book form. 

— 139 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 
OCTOBER (An Anthology) 

Edited by Oscar Fay Adams. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. 
(1886). Wide foolscap 8vo., cloth. "Through the Year with 
the Poets" Series. Contains "Before the Hint of Storm" 
and "The Potato Harvest," by Charles G. D. Roberts, the 
latter being here first published. 

SONGS OF THE GREAT DOMINION 

Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and 
Cities of Canada. Selected and Edited by William Douw 
Lighthall, M.A., of Montreal. London: Walter Scott, 1889. 
Thick post 8vo., decorated blue cloth, pp. xl-465. Contains 
twelve poems by Charles G. D. Roberts, three ("Burnt 
Lands," "The Fir Woods," and "Frogs") being here first 
published. 

Reissued, condensed and in smaller format, in 1891 as 
"Canadian Poems and Lays, Selections of Native Verse 
reflecting the Seasons, Legends, and Life of the Dominion," 
the twelve poems by Charles G. D. Roberts in the original 
volume being all reprinted. 

YOUNGER AMERICAN POETS, 1830-1890 

Edited by Douglas Sladen, B.A. With an Appendix of 
Younger Canadian Poets, Edited by Goodridge Bliss Roberts, 
of St. John, N.B. New York: The Cassell Publishing Co., 
(1891). Crown 8vo., dark blue cloth, pp. lii-666. Con- 
tains eight poems by Charles G. D. Roberts, one ("Salt") 
being here first published. 

LATER CANADIAN POEMS 

Edited by J. E. Wetherell, B.A. Toronto: The Copp, 
Clark Co., Limited, 1893. Foolscap 4to., brown cloth 
(also printed grey paper boards, and stiff printed wrappers), 
pp. ix-187. Portraits. Contains seventeen poems by 
Charles G. D. Roberts; of which "The Silver Thaw" "Can- 
adian Streams," "Autocthon," "Song," "Epitaph for a 
Sailor Buried Ashore," "Grey Rocks and Greyer Sea'" 
"A Song of Growth," "The Clearing," "The Waking Earth," 
"When Milking Time is Done," "In the Wide Awe and 
Wisdom of the Night," and "The Night Sky," are here first 
published in book form, the others having appeared origin- 
ally in Orion and Other Poems (Philadelphia, 1880). 

CANADIAN SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS 

An Album of Portraits and Autograph Poems (Compiled 
by Edward S. Caswell). Published for the Ladies' Aid 
Society of Broadway Methodist Tabernacle, Toronto, by 
William Briggs, MDCCCCH. Wide crown 8vo., decorated 

— 140 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

dark blue-green paper wrappers, pp. 45. Portraits and 
facsimiles. Contains autograph facsimile of Charles G. D. 
Roberts' "Life and Art," with portrait. 

CANADIAN POETS 

Chosen and Edited by John W. Garvin, B.A., Toronto: 
McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart (1016). Thick 8vo., 
red cloth, pp. 471. Contains seven poems by Charles G. D. 
Roberts, all here first published in book form, with portrait, 
sketch and extracts from Prof. Cappon's "Roberts and the 
Influences of His Time" (Toronto, 1905). This book ori- 
ginally contained thirteen poems chosen from Roberts' 
various volumes, but owing to copyright difficulties was 
suppressed, only twenty-five copies being issued. 



PART VII.— BOOKS CONTAINING CONTRIBU- 
TIONS BY ROBERTS— PROSE 

PICTURESQUE CANADA: The Country as it Was 
and Is 

Edited by George Monro Grant, D.D. Illustrated with 
over 500 engravings on wood. 

Toronto: Belden Bros. (1882). 35 parts, large 4to., 
decorated wrappers (subsequently issued in two vols., cloth). 
Vol. II contains "New Brunswick," by Charles G. D. Roberts, 
M.A. 

IN PERIL: True Stories of Adventure 

Boston: D. Lothrop Co. (1887). Foolscap 8vo., decorated 
grey-green cloth boards, pp. 181. Frontispiece and other 
full-page illustrations by Henry Sandham and others. 
Contains "Bear vs. Birchbark," by Charles G. D. Roberts, 
constituting the first appearance of a story by him in book 
form. 

CANADIAN LEAVES 

A series of New Papers read before the Canadian Club 
of New York. Edited by G. M. Fairchild, Jr. Illustrated by 
Thomson Willing, A.R.C.A. New York: Napoleon Thomp- 
son & Co., 1887. 4to., printed paper wrappers, pp. viii- 
289 (-1). Portraits and other illustrations. Contains 
"Echoes from Old Acadia," by Charles G. D. Roberts, with 
portrait, pp. 1 45-173. 

— 141 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE, 

ANCIENT AND MODERN 

Charles Dudley Warner, Editor. Hamilton Wright 
Mabie, Lucia Gilbert Runkle, George H. Warner, Assistant 
Editors. New York: R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill (1891). 30 
vols., royal 8vo., buckram, red leather title-label. Vol. 
VI contains "Bliss Carman," with portrait, by Charles G. 
D. Roberts. 

A HOUSE PARTY 

An Account of the stories told at a gathering of famous 
American authors, the story tellers being introduced by 
Paul Leicester Ford. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1001. 
Post 8vo., decorated red cloth, pp. vii-418. Contains "The 
Red Oxen of Bonval," by Charles G. D. Roberts. 

INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORIES 

Edited by William Patten. A new collection of famous 
examples from the literatures of England, France and 
America. American. New York: P. F. Collier & Son 
(iqio). Crown 8vo., decorated dark blue cloth, pp. 382. 
Portrait frontispiece of Anna Katharine Green. Contains 
"Jean Michaud's Little Ship," by Charles G. D. Roberts, 
reprinted from The Saturday Evening Post. 



PART VIII.— BOOKS ABOUT ROBERTS. 

ROBERTS AND THE INFLUENCES OF HIS 
TIME 

By James Cappon, M.A. Toronto: William Briggs, 1905. 
Narrow crown 8vo., grey blue cloth boards, pp. 88. "Studies 
in Canadian Poetry," No. 1. Reprinted from The Canadian 
Magazine, Jan.-April, 1905. 

CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS AND "THE WATCHERS 

OF THE TRAILS" 

His Second Book of Animal Life, with some mention also 
of his complete works. Boston: L. C. Page & Co. (1904). 
Very small 4to., printed wrappers, pp. 22. Eight full-page 
illustrations and smaller drawings by C. L. Bull. 



— 142 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

PART IX.— BOOK AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY 

"Charles G. D. Roberts," by B.C. (Bliss Carman), with 
portrait and two pp. poems and extracts from poems. 
January, 1889, Vol. 1, No. 1. 

THE TORONTO GLOBE 

"The Canadian Poet, Charles G. D. Roberts." November, 
23, 1889. 

"Charles G. D. Roberts, Literary Nature-Artist," by 
Donald French. February 8, 1910. 

THE DOMINION ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY 

"Canadian Poets in Miniature" (in verse) by Clio (in- 
cludes two verses on Roberts). November, 1892. Vol. 1, 
No. 10. 

CANADIAN MAGAZINE 

"Roberts," by T. G. Marquis. September, 1893. Vol. 1 , 
No. 7, PP. 572-5. 

Review of "The Book of the Native," by T. G. Marquis. 
March, 1897. Vol. VIII, No. 5, pp. 452-6. 

Sketch by A. B. de Mille, with portrait. September, 
1900, Vol. 15, pp. 426-8. 

Review of "The Heart of the Ancient Wood," by N. H. 
Banks, May, 1901, Vol. 17, pp. 88. 

Portrait. December, 1902. Vol. 20, p. 200. 

"Vignette in Canadian Literature," by B. Muddiman. 
March, 1913, pp. 451-8, port., illus. 

THE CHAP BOOK 

"Contemporaries. V. Charles G. D. Roberts," by Bliss 
Carman, with portrait. January 1, 1895. Vol. II, No. 4. 

THE BOOKMAN 

Sketch by W. L. Wendell, with portrait. August, 1900. 
Vol. II, pp. 520-2. 

Review of "The Heart of the Ancient Wood," by N. H. 
Banks. December, 1900, Vol. 12, pp. 349-51. 

THE ATHEN^UM 

Review of "The Heart of the Ancient Wood," by N. H. 
Banks. February 16, 1901, Vol. I, p. 205. 

Review of "Barbara Ladd." August 22, i903» Vol. 2, 
p. 248. 

— 143 — 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 
POETS OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION 

By William Archer. With thirty-three full-page portraits 
from woodcuts by Robert Bryden. London and New York: 
John Lane, The Bodley Head, MCMII, pp. viii-565. 
"Charles G. D. Roberts," pp. 362-372, with portrait. 

THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL 

Portrait. September, 1902, Vol. 19, p. 17. 

CURRENT LITERATURE 

Portrait. September, 1902, Vo.l 33, p. 257. 

REVIEW OF REVIEWS 

Portrait. November, 1902. Vol. 26, p. 570. 
"Vignette in Canadian Literature," by B. Muddiman. 
April, 1913, Vol. 47, pp. 490-1. 

THE NATION 

"Poems." Review. May 29, 1902, Vol. 74, p. 430. 
"Barbara Ladd." Review. December 11, 1902, Vol. 75, 
p. 468. 

THE INDEPENDENT 

"Poems." Review. September 11, 1902, Vol. 54, pp. 
2195-6. 

THE NATIONAL MONTHLY 

"Eminent Canadians in New York (II). The Father of 
Canadian Poetry," by Arthur Stringer. Toronto, February, 
1904, Vol. IV, No. 2. 

THE YOUNGER AMERICAN POETS 

By Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Illustrated with portraits. 
Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1904. Crown 8vo., decorated 
green cloth, xiv (3)-35o pp. "Charles G. D. Roberts," 
pp. 132-150, with portrait. 

FAMOUS AUTHORS 

"The Literary Career of Roberts," by E. F. Harkins, with 
portrait, pp. 299-315. 

OUTING 

"Roberts' Red Fox," by John Burroughs. July, 1906, 
Vol. 48, p. 5i2a-b. 

— 144 — 



INDEX 



"Actaeon," 83, 84 
"An Oblation," 99 

Anthology, 29ft. 

Appreciation, 69ff. 

Arnold, Matthew, 15, 81, 89 
"At Tide Water," 45 

Ave, 15, 3iff-, 89, 91 

Bibliography, 125:0*. 
Biography, 1 
Bliss, Daniel, 1, 2 
Bliss, George Pidgeon, 1 
Book of Roberts, The, 9, 23 
Book of the Native, The, 21, 98 
Book of the Rose, The, 23, 114 
Browning, 14, 83, 88, 116 
Burroughs, John, 21, 121 

Cameron, Frederick George, 76 
Campbell, William Wilfred, 2, 76, 77, 109 
Carman, Bliss, 4, 17, 24, 76, 77 
Crawford, Isabella Valancy, 8, 108 
Cowper, 97, 1 01 

"Do Seek Their Meat from God," 18 
Duncan, Sara Jeanette, 72 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1, 21, 22, 100 
"Epistle to Bliss Carman," 87 
"Epitaph for a Husbandman, An," 44 

Federation, 75 
Fenety, Mary Isabel, 7 
Fidelis, 75, 106 

— 145 — 



INDEX 

"Fishers of the Air," 65 
"Flight of the Geese, The," 42 

Forge in the Forest, The, 11 

Foster, George (Sir), 4 

France, Anatole, 117 

Heart that Knows, The, 122 

History of Canada, 9 
"Heal-All, The," 43 
"Hermit-Thrush, The," 56 

Hunt, Leigh, 80 

"Ideal, The," 58 

In Divers Tones, 14 
"Indian Summer," 93 

Johnson, Pauline, 8, 76, 78 

Keats, 6, 14, 78, 80, 81, 94, 97, 118 
Kipling, 18, 24, 115, 122 

Lampman, Archibald, 2, 76, 77, 109 
Longfellow, 99 
Lowell, Amy, 117 
Lowell, James Russell, 24 

MacDonald, Elizabeth Roberts, 3 
Mair, Charles, 8, 74, 75 
"Marsyas," 83, 85 
McLachlan, 75, 106 
Miller, Joacquin, 18 
Millet, 97 

Nature in Canadian Literature, 71, 72fi\, 95 

Nature Stories, i6ff. 
"New Life," 60. 

New York Nocturnes, 22, 113, 115, 119 
"Nocturne of Consecration, A," 61, 113, 120 

Norwood, Robert, 2, 11, 27, 28 

— 146 — 



INDEX 

"On the Creek," 48 
Orion and Other Poems, 5, 6, 82 

Parkin, George R. (Sir), 3, 82 
"Potato Harvest, The," 40 

"Recessional," 46, 119 

Roberts, C. G. D., birth, 1; family, 1; Westcock 
parish, 2; enters Fredericton Collegiate, 3; 
teaches in Chatham Grammar School, 4; first 
book, 5; marries, 7; granted M.A., University 
of N.B., 7; head-master York Street School, 
Fredericton, 8; edits The Week, 8; free-lance 
journalism, 9; Professor King's College, Wind- 
sor, N.S., 9; "History of Canada," 9; "The 
Forge in the Forest," 11 ; "In Divers Tones," 14; 
"Songs of the Common Day," 15; "Ave," 15; 
goes to New York, 16; begins nature stories, 
i6ff.; "The Book of the Native," 21; "New 
York Nocturnes," 22; "The Book of the Rose," 
23 ; goes abroad, 25 ; the Great War, 26 ; honoured 
by his Alma Mater, 27; critical estimate of his 
work, 79ff. 

Roberts, Goodridge Bliss, 3 

Roberts, Lloyd, 9, 23 

Roberts, Theodore Goodridge, 3 

Roberts, William Carman, 3 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 20 

Rossetti, D. G., 23, 112, 115 

Sangster, Charles, 74, 108 

Scott, Duncan Campbell, 8, 76 

Scott, George Frederick, 76 

Shelley, 15, 89, 90, 97, 100 
"Solitary Woodsman, The," 97 

Smith, Goldwin, 8 

Songs of the Common Day, 15, 92 
"Sower, The," 41, 95 

Spencer, 118 

Swinburne, 15, 24, 82, 89, 115, 116 

— 147 — 



INDEX 

Tennyson, 14, 78, 81, 83 
"Tantramar Revisited," 51 

The Week, 8 

Thompson-Seton, Ernest, 19 
"Twilight on Sixth Avenue," 59 

Watson, Albert Durrant, 24 
Westcock parish, 2 
Whitman, Walt, 24, 117 
Whittier, 99 
Wordsworth, 6, 21, 78, 97, 118 



— 148- 



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